Neural signatures of spontaneous transitions between internal and external thought
- 1Purdue University
Abstract
The human mind constantly shifts between internal representations and the external environment, yet the neural mechanisms underlying such spontaneous transitions remain underexplored. Here, we analyzed a think-aloud functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset, in which participants continuously verbalized their thoughts, to identify neural activity predicting transitions between internally and externally oriented thought. Internal-to-external transitions were preceded by increased activation in the salience/ventral attention network, with the strongest effect observed in the right temporoparietal junction. The spatial pattern of this pre-transition activation was positively associated with acetylcholine receptor density, suggesting a role for cholinergic signaling in cognitive reorientation. Pre-transition activation was itself preceded by a large-scale brain state proposed to serve as a flexible hub between functionally specialized states, indicating that spontaneous transitions are more likely when the brain occupies this intermediate configuration. Together, these findings suggest that multilevel neural mechanisms support flexible reorientation along the internal-external dimension of spontaneous cognition.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhao2026neural,
title = {{Neural signatures of spontaneous transitions between internal and external thought}},
author = {M. Zhao and M. Zhang and H. Su and P. R. Liu and H. Lee},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.27.747628},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.27.747628v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Neural signatures of spontaneous transitions between internal and external thought
AU - M. Zhao
AU - M. Zhang
AU - H. Su
AU - P. R. Liu
AU - H. Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/27
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.27.747628
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.27.747628v1
AB - The human mind constantly shifts between internal representations and the external environment, yet the neural mechanisms underlying such spontaneous transitions remain underexplored. Here, we analyzed a think-aloud functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset, in which participants continuously verbalized their thoughts, to identify neural activity predicting transitions between internally and externally oriented thought. Internal-to-external transitions were preceded by increased activation in the salience/ventral attention network, with the strongest effect observed in the right temporoparietal junction. The spatial pattern of this pre-transition activation was positively associated with acetylcholine receptor density, suggesting a role for cholinergic signaling in cognitive reorientation. Pre-transition activation was itself preceded by a large-scale brain state proposed to serve as a flexible hub between functionally specialized states, indicating that spontaneous transitions are more likely when the brain occupies this intermediate configuration. Together, these findings suggest that multilevel neural mechanisms support flexible reorientation along the internal-external dimension of spontaneous cognition.
ER -