Affective neuroscience of self-generated thought

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Kieran C R FoxKalina Christoff

Abstract

Despite increasing scientific interest in self-generated thought-mental content largely independent of the immediate environment-there has yet to be any comprehensive synthesis of the subjective experience and neural correlates of affect in these forms of thinking. Here, we aim to develop an integrated affective neuroscience encompassing many forms of self-generated thought-normal and pathological, moderate and excessive, in waking and in sleep. In synthesizing existing literature on this topic, we reveal consistent findings pertaining to the prevalence, valence, and variability of emotion in self-generated thought, and highlight how these factors might interact with self-generated thought to influence general well-being. We integrate these psychological findings with recent neuroimaging research, bringing attention to the neural correlates of affect in self-generated thought. We show that affect in self-generated thought is prevalent, positively biased, highly variable (both within and across individuals), and consistently recruits many brain areas implicated in emotional processing, including the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, insula, and medial prefrontal cortex. Many factors modulate these typical psychological and neural ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Sep 8, 2019·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Randy L Buckner, Lauren M DiNicola
Apr 18, 2020·The European Journal of Neuroscience·Sofie KrakauJuergen Fell
Jul 1, 2020·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Tracy Brandmeyer, Arnaud Delorme
Jul 28, 2020·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Tracy Brandmeyer, Arnaud Delorme
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Dec 15, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Caitlin MillsKalina Christoff
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Jun 11, 2021·Consciousness and Cognition·Delali KonuJonathan Smallwood
Jul 14, 2021·NeuroImage·Julian GaviriaPatrik Vuilleumier
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Oct 15, 2021·Behavior Research Methods·Hui-Xian LiChao-Gan Yan
Dec 21, 2021·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Leila ChaiebJuergen Fell

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