Mortaheb, SepehrVan Calster, LaurensRaimondo, FedericoKlados, Manousos A.Boulakis, Paradeisios AlexandrosGeorgoula, KleioMajerus, SteveVan de Ville, DimitriDemertzi, Athena2023-05-082023-05-082023-05-082022-10-1110.1073/pnas.2200511119https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/197500WOS:000966789000006Mind blanking (MB) is a waking state during which we do not report any mental con-tent. The phenomenology of MB challenges the view of a constantly thinking mind. Here, we comprehensively characterize the MB's neurobehavioral profile with the aim to delineate its role during ongoing mentation. Using functional MRI experience sam-pling, we show that the reportability of MB is less frequent, faster, and with lower tran-sitional dynamics than other mental states, pointing to its role as a transient mental relay. Regarding its neural underpinnings, we observed higher global signal amplitude during MB reports, indicating a distinct physiological state. Using the time-varying functional connectome, we show that MB reports can be classified with high accuracy, suggesting that MB has a unique neural composition. Indeed, a pattern of global positive-phase coherence shows the highest similarity to the connectivity patterns asso-ciated with MB reports. We interpret this pattern's rigid signal architecture as hinder-ing content reportability due to the brain's inability to differentiate signals in an informative way. Collectively, we show that MB has a unique neurobehavioral profile, indicating that nonreportable mental events can happen during wakefulness. Our results add to the characterization of spontaneous mentation and pave the way for more mechanistic investigations of MB's phenomenology.Multidisciplinary SciencesScience & Technology - Other Topicsmind blankingexperience samplingresting statemental contentfunctional connectivitysignal regressionconsciousnessnetworksdynamicssleepfluctuationsamplitudeimpacttext::journal::journal article::research article