Research Projects

Inhibitory-control is crucial for leading productive lives, and deficits in this ability are common in many clinical populations. To develop therapeutic interventions, understanding how inhibitory-control is mediated in the brain is essential. One aspect of inhibitory-control is action-inhibition, which involves rapidly stopping incipient actions. Recent research suggests that the neural mechanism underlying action-inhibition might also mediate inhibition of thoughts and urges. Action-inhibition may proceed in two stages: 'trigger' mediated by attentional networks and 'brake' mediated by a prefrontal cortex-basal ganglia-thalamocortical network. Mental-states like mind-wandering (MW) can impede action-inhibition by affecting the trigger stage. This proposal aims to elucidate the neural mechanism by which MW impedes action-inhibition and test how interventions like meditation reduce mind-wandering and improves inhibitory-control. The study will test whether neural markers of the trigger and brake are affected by MW, providing a better understanding of how MW affects action-inhibition and potentially promoting future research on real-time detection of MW to improve behavior. Mental-health may also be affected by MW, as some clinical populations have increased levels. However, studies have reported that meditators have lower MW and improved inhibitory-control. This link may be tested by testing the effect of meditation on MW and action-inhibition, comparing neural markers of the trigger and brake during MW between long-term and naïve meditators and naïve participants before and after short-term meditation training. This will provide a better understanding of how meditation improves life quality and may promote future research to test its effectiveness in improving life quality in clinical populations.

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