What our wandering thoughts can teach us about mental health
University of Arizona
78 participants were trained to voice their thoughts aloud
for 10 minutes while sitting alone in a room without access to electronic
devices. Researchers used audio equipment to record those thoughts, then
transcribed the recordings and analyzed them for content. In total, more than
2,000 thoughts were analyzed.
"We wanted to mimic the small breaks we have throughout
the day, such as when waiting in line at a café, taking a shower, lying in bed
at night and so on. These are all times during which external demands are
minimal and internal thoughts tend to creep in," said first author Quentin
Raffaelli, a graduate student in the UArizona Department of Psychology.
Most psychology research addressing human thought either
tells people what to think about, asks participants to remember what they were
thinking about minutes before, or uses self-report questionnaires to capture
freeze-frame snapshots of thoughts at different moments in time, according to
the authors.
"While insightful in its own right, this snapshot approach doesn't tell us much about how thoughts unfold and transition over time -- features of thinking that we think are important for our mental health. To capture these dynamic properties of thinking, we need a method that records thoughts in real time and for extended periods," said co-author Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an assistant professor of psychology who oversaw the research in her lab.
Other co-authors include Caitlin Mills, an assistant
professor at the University of New Hampshire, as well as UArizona associate
professors of psychology Mary-Frances O'Connor, Matthias Mehl and Matthew
Grilli, graduate student Eric Andrews, undergraduates Kate Chambers, Nadia-Anais
de Stefano and Surya Fitzgerald, lab coordinator Ramsey Wilcox, as well as
Kalina Christoff, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
A Window to the Mind
The researchers sought to measure patterns of thinking. They
were especially interested in capturing ruminative thinking, continuously
thinking about the same negative thoughts, which is a common symptom of
depression.
"Whereas most participants spent the 10 minutes
thinking about the present or the future in an emotionally neutral way,
participants who scored high on a rumination questionnaire experienced thoughts
that were more past-focused and negative," Raffaelli said.
"Ruminative individuals were also more likely to think about
themselves."
The authors followed certain thoughts over time, measuring
how long they lasted and how narrow or broad in focus they were. Ruminative
individuals had negative thoughts that lasted longer than positive thoughts,
and those negative thoughts became progressively narrower in topic over time.
"We were able to witness how some people became trapped
in perseverative cycles of thinking," Andrews-Hanna said. "We
recruited a random group of people without knowing if they were diagnosed with
any clinical condition for this study, yet it's striking that in just 10
minutes of down time, we can capture thought processes that speak to many
different mental health conditions."
Some people, on the other hand, found the 10 minutes to be
productive and inspirational.
"Some participants thought about positive topics or
goals they wanted to reach," Andrews-Hanna said. "Other people's
thoughts were quite creative. Many participants found that the exercise offered
a refreshing break from the busy world around them."
The exercise wasn't designed for any therapeutic potential,
yet many people viewed it as a therapy session with themselves.
"There is research on the power of externalizing our
inner thoughts via journaling or sharing thoughts with others that I think this
study taps into indirectly," Andrews-Hanna said.
Idle Thinking as a Skill
The study ended before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the
results seem more relevant than ever as many people have experienced more
solitary idle time over the last year and half than at any other point in their
lives.
The authors also conducted a version of this study during
the grips of the pandemic and are now in the process of analyzing the results.
"Having to sit at home for such a long time affected
people's mental well-being dramatically," Raffaelli said. "We saw
this with the increase in anxiety and depression during the pandemic and the
surge in substance abuse."
When not in lockdown, idle time can be rare.
"Taking mental breaks seems to be increasingly
undervalued in today's busy and distracted society," Andrews-Hanna said.
"Western societies seem to reinforce a lifestyle where we're always on the
go, bringing our work home with us or distracting ourselves with email or
social media."
Although the study didn't measure it, the authors speculate
that training people as early as childhood to be comfortable during idle time
may help maintain mental well-being.
"By taming our go-to reflex of taking out our phone
whenever there's a moment of silence, we can more fully realize the benefits of
breaks on our mental health and creativity," Raffaelli said.
The Next Step
Andrews-Hanna and her lab team are interested in the default
mode network, a brain network that plays an important role in internal
thoughts. They have been studying its functions and chipping away at how it
might go awry in people with dysfunctional thinking styles, such as rumination
or intrusive thoughts.
Their work has potential ties to functional magnetic
resonance imaging, or resting-state fMRI, a popular method of brain imaging
used by neuroscientists for brain imaging. The technique involves placing a
person in a brain scanner for about 10 minutes and recording the patterns of
brain activity and connectivity as spontaneous thoughts emerge.
"Eventually, we hope to connect the psychological
characteristics of idle thought to the biological patterns of activity and
connectivity changing across time to provide a fuller picture of consciousness
and mental health," Andrews-Hanna said. "We hope that one day, our
inner mental lives won't be as much of a mystery."