Vigilance Decrement and Mind-Wandering: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2072380/v1
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Summary
This study investigates whether vigilance decrement and mind-wandering (MW) are independent phenomena or facets of a common mechanism, a question motivated by conflicting theoretical models such as the "resource control" model. The authors hypothesized that if the phenomena are independent, distinct manipulations should selectively affect one without the other. To test this, 78 healthy participants completed a sustained attention to response task (SART) in a 2x2 factorial design crossing task demand (low vs. high) and transcranial direct current stimulation (anodal vs. sham high-definition tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). The experiment included periodic thought probes to measure intentional and unintentional MW, as well as pre- and post-task resting-state EEG to assess alpha-band power. The results demonstrated a double dissociation between the two constructs. Task demand exclusively influenced vigilance decrement: performance accuracy declined significantly across blocks only in the high-demand condition, while remaining stable in the low-demand condition. Conversely, anodal tDCS exclusively influenced the propensity for MW: the rate of MW increased significantly in the second half of the task for the anodal group compared to the sham group, with no effect of task demand on MW rates. Neither manipulation affected the other variable. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that individual variability in baseline alpha-band power predicted the magnitude of tDCS-induced increases in unintentional MW, but did not predict vigilance decrement. Baseline alpha power remained stable after the task, suggesting it acts as a trait-like marker. These findings indicate that vigilance decrement and MW are independent processes that co-occur during sustained attention tasks rather than being driven by a shared resource depletion mechanism. The data challenge the resource control model, which posits that MW consumes executive resources necessary for vigilance, and instead align with resource-depletion models where high demands deplete attentional resources, causing performance drops independent of MW. The discovery that baseline alpha power predicts tDCS effects on unintentional MW provides a novel neurophysiological marker for individual differences in susceptibility to brain stimulation. This suggests that future applications of noninvasive brain stimulation should account for baseline neural states to predict cognitive outcomes accurately.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 4 | 2026-08-23 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.8-27b-gittensor | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-08-23 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 11 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-09 |
Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.
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