Opposite Effects of Alpha Oscillations on Mind-wandering With Eyes Open and Closed

Thielking, Esther M.; Ramsey, Hannah; Samaha, Jason; Andrillon, Thomas; Iemi, Luca · 2026 · Crossref

DOI: 10.64898/2026.01.20.700111

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study addresses conflicting findings in the literature regarding the relationship between alpha oscillations (7–14 Hz) and mind-wandering. Previous research has reported both positive and negative correlations between alpha power and task-unrelated thoughts, creating ambiguity about how neural oscillations reflect mental experience. The authors hypothesize that these inconsistencies arise from differences in eye state across studies, as eye closure significantly increases alpha power and can reverse its relationship with arousal and sleepiness. To test this, the researchers proposed an inverted-U model, suggesting that alpha power positively correlates with mind-wandering at low power levels (typical of eyes-open states) and negatively correlates at high power levels (typical of eyes-closed states). The experimental design involved 60 healthy adults randomly assigned to perform an auditory sustained attention-to-response task (SART) with either eyes open (EO) or eyes closed (EC). Participants underwent resting-state blocks to establish baseline alpha power ranges for both eye states, followed by six 5-minute task blocks. During the task, participants responded to auditory stimuli and were intermittently probed to report whether they were on-task or mind-wandering. Subjective sleepiness was also rated after each block. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from eight occipito-parietal electrodes. The analysis utilized generalized linear models to examine the relationship between ongoing alpha power and subjective reports of mind-wandering, sleepiness, and reaction times. Additionally, a systematic literature review of 29 eligible studies was conducted to verify if the observed patterns held across existing data. The results supported the inverted-U hypothesis. In the EO group, increased alpha power was positively correlated with both mind-wandering and sleepiness. Conversely, in the EC group, increased alpha power was negatively correlated with mind-wandering and sleepiness, indicating greater on-task focus and alertness. The systematic review largely replicated these findings, showing that studies using eyes-open protocols typically reported positive correlations, while those using eyes-closed protocols reported negative correlations. Reaction times were negatively correlated with alpha and beta power only in the EC group, consistent with prior findings for that eye state. These findings reconcile contradictory evidence in the field by demonstrating that the direction of the alpha-mind-wandering relationship depends on the baseline level of alpha power, which is modulated by eye state. The study concludes that alpha oscillations do not have a uniform effect on attention but rather reflect an inverted-U relationship with mind-wandering. This clarifies how ongoing neural oscillations map onto the stream of mental experience, suggesting that decreases in arousal, as reflected by changes in alpha power, may trigger episodes of mind-wandering depending on the sensory context.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• neuro workload indices