Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e33706. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033706. Epub 2012 Apr 6.
Although consciousness can be brought to bear on both perceptual and internally generated information, little is known about how these different cognitive modes are coordinated. Here we show that between-participant variance in thoughts unrelated to the task being performed (known as task unrelated thought, TUT) is associated with longer response times (RT) when target presentation occurs during periods when baseline Pupil Diameter (PD) is increased. As behavioral interference due to high baseline PD can reflect increased tonic activity in the norepinephrine system (NE), these results might implicate high tonic NE activity in the facilitation of TUTs. Based on these findings, it is hypothesised that high tonic mode NE leads to a generalised de-amplification of task relevant information that prioritses internally generated thought and insulates it from the potentially disruptive events taking place in the external environment.
虽然意识可以被用于处理感知信息和内部生成的信息，但对于这两种不同认知模式如何协调，我们知之甚少。在这里，我们发现，与正在执行的任务无关的思维（称为与任务无关的思维，TUT）在参与者之间的差异与当目标呈现时基线瞳孔直径（PD）增加时的反应时间（RT）延长有关。由于由于基线 PD 升高而导致的行为干扰可能反映出去甲肾上腺素系统（NE）中的紧张活动增加，这些结果可能暗示 TUT 中紧张 NE 活动的促进作用。基于这些发现，我们假设高紧张模式 NE 导致与任务相关信息的普遍去放大，优先考虑内部生成的思维，并使其免受外部环境中潜在干扰事件的影响。
