Spontaneous mind wandering impairs model-based decision making

PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE Spontaneous mind wandering impairs modelbased decision making Shuyan Liu ID1*, Milena Rabovsky ID2, Daniel J. Schad3 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2 Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, 3 Psychology Department, Health and Medical University, Potsdam, Germany * a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract Background OPEN ACCESS Citation: Liu S, Rabovsky M, Schad DJ (2023) Spontaneous mind wandering impairs modelbased decision making. PLoS ONE 18(1): e0279532. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0279532 Editor: Andrew T. Marshall, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, UNITED STATES Received: March 9, 2022 Accepted: December 8, 2022 Published: January 26, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If our attention wanders to other thoughts while making a decision, then the decision might not be directed towards future goals, reflecting a lack of model-based decision making, but may instead be driven by habits, reflecting model-free decision making. Here we aimed to investigate if and how model-based versus model-free decision making is reduced by trait spontaneous mind wandering. Methods and findings We used a sequential two-step Markov decision task and a self-report questionnaire assessing trait spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering propensity, to investigate how trait mind wandering relates to model-free as well as model-based decisions. We estimated parameters of a computational neurocognitive dual-control model of decision making. Analyzing estimated model parameters, we found that trait spontaneous mind wandering was related to impaired model-based decisions, while model-free choice stayed unaffected. Conclusions Our findings suggest trait spontaneous mind wandering is associated with impaired modelbased decision making, and it may reflect model-based offline replay for other tasks (e.g., real-life goals) outside the current lab situation. Data Availability Statement: Data are available, with restrictions due to confidentiality in line with Berlin Data Protection Act (Berliner Datenschutzgesetz -BlnDSG). Interested individuals can contact with data access requests. Introduction Funding: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), grant number FOR 1617 (subproject 3, Modelling learning, SCHA 1971/1-2 to DJS) and grant number (Projektnummer) 491466077. The funders had no role in study When making decisions, we often think about the consequences of the decision to guide goaldirected choices, but we also rely on habits reflecting the past. During mind wandering, our thoughts are distracted from the current external task (e.g., of making a decision), and are instead focused on other thoughts. We here were interested in whether such mind wandering impairs the goal-directed aspects of decisions, while leaving the action of habits unaffected. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279532 January 26, 2023 1 / 14 PLOS ONE design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Mind wandering impairs decisions We often base our decisions on two systems [1]: habits (model-free) and goals (modelbased). Computational models have described habits as depending on model-free retrospective reinforcement learning that simply repeats the actions that lead to a gain in the past, and goals as relying on model-based prospective planning that is guided by the likelihood of affective outcomes that are predicted by a model of the environment [2,3]. Habits and goals work in tandem and each system has an equally valuable approach to guiding action selection [4]. Adaptive behavior depends on the ability to flexibly regulate their respective contributions under varying contexts [3,4]. Theoretically [2,3], model-based decision-making is thought to rely on cognitive computations that involve anticipating the consequences of one’s actions based on a cognitive model of the environment. Consistent with this theory, previous studies showed that model-based decision making is impaired under dual-task load [5] and during transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [6], and depends on cognitive capacities such as working memory and processing speed [7,8]. Here we ask whether our ongoing decision making process is also disrupted by internal information, for example, in the form of unintentional and intentional task-unrelated imagery and thoughts (i.e., mind wandering) that are unhelpful to the task at hand [9–11]. Patterns of ongoing thought vary across different tasks and individuals [12] and dynamically change across time, such that an individual may have multiple spontaneous alternations between task focus and off-task thoughts [13]. Mind wandering reflects the capacity to disengage internal thoughts from the external environment, known as perceptual decoupling [14]. According to the decoupling hypothesis mind wandering is associated with a reduction in cognitive processing of external environment, such that it can be devoted to internal thoughts [14,15]. This is hypothesized to result from executive control, which shields internal thought against external distractions [10,16,17]. Model-based decision making involves learning and reasoning about the external environment [2,3]. In situations of mind wandering cognitive capacities such as working memory [18–20] needed to support model-based decision making may not be available to the external decision-task. Instead of processing task-related information (i.e., learning about the future consequences of potential choices), the model-based decision making may process internal task-unrelated information related to mind wandering. Perceptual decoupling occurs not only in an all-or-none fashion, where people are either mind wandering or focused on a given task, but also happens in a graded fashion, reflecting states of weak and deep mind wandering, known as the levels of inattention hypothesis [21]. Weak mind wandering is thought to impair high-level cognitive processing, but to leave lowlevel processing intact [21]. In the current context, this may be taken to suggest that weak mind wandering may reduce model-based decision making that requires more complex and higher-level cognitive processing as compared to an unaffected model-free decision system. In individuals reporting high levels of mind wandering, one would, therefore, be expected to find impairments of model-based decisions, but not of model-free decisions. One distinction in mind wandering resea (...truncated)