University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Geneva University Hospitals.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2017 Oct;29(10):1766-1777. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01155. Epub 2017 May 31.
Thoughts occur during wake as well as during dreaming sleep. Using experience sampling combined with high-density EEG, we investigated the phenomenal qualities and neural correlates of spontaneously occurring thoughts across wakefulness, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and REM sleep. Across all states, thoughts were associated with activation of a region of the midcingulate cortex. Thoughts during wakefulness additionally involved a medial prefrontal region, which was associated with metacognitive thoughts during wake. Phenomenologically, waking thoughts had more metacognitive content than thoughts during both NREM and REM sleep, whereas thoughts during REM sleep had a more social content. Together, these results point to a core neural substrate for thoughts, regardless of behavioral state, within the midcingulate cortex, and suggest that medial prefrontal regions may contribute to metacognitive content in waking thoughts.
在清醒和做梦睡眠期间都会出现思维。使用经验采样和高密度 EEG，我们研究了自发出现的思维在清醒、非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠和 REM 睡眠期间的现象特征和神经相关性。在所有状态下，思维都与中扣带皮层的一个区域的激活有关。清醒时的思维还涉及内侧前额叶区域，该区域与清醒时的元认知思维有关。从现象学上看，清醒时的思维比 NREM 和 REM 睡眠期间的思维具有更多的元认知内容，而 REM 睡眠期间的思维则具有更多的社交内容。总之，这些结果表明，在中扣带皮层内存在一个核心的神经基质，用于思考，无论行为状态如何，并表明内侧前额叶区域可能有助于清醒时思维的元认知内容。
