Glossary
Default mode interference
What is default mode interference?
Default mode interference is a proposed account of some attentional lapses: activity associated with internally directed processing may compete with demands of an external task.
How it works
Weissman and colleagues found that slower responses were associated with several changes in brain activity, including less deactivation of a default-mode network. This was a distributed pattern, not evidence that one network alone caused the lapse.
Applied example
You reach the bottom of a page and realize you were thinking about tomorrow’s meeting instead of the text. That illustrates an attentional lapse that could involve mind-wandering. It takes a brain measurement to test whether default-mode activity was involved.
Why it matters
The account gives researchers a way to test how internally directed thought relates to performance on an external task. Different distractions can have different causes.