Mind-Wandering and Body-Wandering

We all experience moments when our thoughts drift away from what we’re doing. Scientists call this “mind‑wandering”. Past research has mostly focused on how our minds wander to memories or future plans. This “cognitive” mind‑wandering is linked to both creativity and distress (悲伤).

However, a new study suggests we also frequently engage in “body wandering”—when spontaneous (自发的) thoughts turn to bodily sensations like our heartbeat or breath. “The effects of this have been largely overlooked,” says neuroscientist Micah Allen.

To investigate, Allen’s team had 536 people lie in an MRI scanner. Afterward, they reported what was on their minds. Besides typical daydreams, many reported paying attention to bodily sensations. The MRI scans supported this, showing that “body wandering” had a different form of brain function than cognitive mind‑wandering.

The findings revealed a complex picture. In the moment, people who reported more body wandering during the scan also reported feeling more distress. Study coauthor Leah Banellis notes that the confined (狭窄的) MRI environment might have influenced this.

Yet, the broader picture told a different story. Overall, participants who tended to engage in body wandering more often in daily life showed fewer symptoms of depression and attention‑deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Both conditions are often associated with excessive traditional mind‑wandering and poor interoception—the ability to sense one’s internal bodily state.

“While focusing on the body might feel unpleasant in a stressful moment, a general tendency to tune in to bodily signals could have a protective effect over time,” Banellis says. It might help ground individuals likely to fall into harmful cycles of negative thinking.

A key limitation, according to peer reviewer Aaron Kucyi, is that inner thoughts were measured only once. “Mind‑wandering is dynamic. A single measure might miss its slight differences,” he says. “Despite this, the study is influential in potentially bridging two separate fields of research: interoception and mind‑wandering.”