Attentional switch from external toward internal world: a psychophysiological marker

Abstract : Let’s have an experience. Read the following question and try to answer as sincerely as possible. Meanwhile, observe what’s going on in your mind. Here is the question: “What gift did you receive for Christmas?”. To answer this question, we need to create a temporary internal mental space to which our attention will focus (Tulving, 2002). This attentional switch from external towards internal mental world is commonly referred as mindwandering. Since attention is a limited resource, it cannot focus simultaneously on outside and inside worlds: while our attention is focused on our internal world, we are largely blind to external stimulations (Fernandes & Moscovitch, 2000). There is a perceptual decoupling (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006) which is one of the most threatening aspect of the mindwandering (Schooler et al., 2011).