Jessica Andrews-Hanna

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Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Maresh, E. L., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2021). Putting the “me” in “mentalizing”: Constructs describing the interplay between self and other with implications for social anxiety disorder.. In The Neural Basis of Mentalizing. New York, NY: Springer Press.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Christoff, K., & O'Connor, M. (2020). Dynamic regulation of internal experience: Mechanisms of therapeutic change. In The Neuroscience of Enduring Change: The Neural Basis of Talk Therapies.(pp 89--191). Oxford University Press, USA.
• Raffaelli, Q., Wilcox, R., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2020). The neuroscience of imaginative thought: An integrative framework. In The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination(pp 331--353). Cambridge University Press.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C., Spreng, R. N., & Christoff, K. (2018). The neuroscience of spontaneous thought: An evolving, interdisciplinary field. In The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought(pp 143--164). Oxford University Press.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C., Spreng, N., & Christoff, K. (2017). The neuroscience of spontaneous thought: An evolving, interdisciplinary field. In The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought: Mind-wandering, Creativity, Dreaming, and Clinical Conditions. Oxford University Press.

Journals/Publications

• Koelsch, S., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Skouras, S. (2022). Tormenting thoughts: The posterior cingulate sulcus of the default mode network regulates valence of thoughts and activity in the brain's pain network during music listening. Human brain mapping, 43(2), 773-786.
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  Many individuals spend a significant amount of their time "mind-wandering". Mind-wandering often includes spontaneous, nonintentional thought, and a neural correlate of this kind of thought is the default mode network (DMN). Thoughts during mind-wandering can have positive or negative valence, but only little is known about the neural correlates of positive or negative thoughts. We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and music to evoke mind-wandering in n = 33 participants, with positive-sounding music eliciting thoughts with more positive valence and negative-sounding music eliciting thoughts with more negative valence. Applying purely data-driven analysis methods, we show that medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC, part of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and the posterior cingulate sulcus (likely area 23c of the posterior cingulate cortex), two sub-regions of the DMN, modulate the valence of thought-contents during mind-wandering. In addition, across two independent experiments, we observed that the posterior cingulate sulcus, a region involved in pain, shows valence-specific functional connectivity with core regions of the brain's putative pain network. Our results suggest that two DMN regions (mOFC and posterior cingulate sulcus) support the formation of negative spontaneous, nonintentional thoughts, and that the interplay between these structures with regions of the putative pain network forms a neural mechanism by which thoughts can become painful.
• Matijevic, S., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Wank, A. A., Ryan, L., & Grilli, M. D. (2022). Individual differences in the relationship between episodic detail generation and resting state functional connectivity vary with age. Neuropsychologia, 166, 108138.
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  The ability to generate episodic details while recollecting autobiographical events is believed to depend on a collection of brain regions that form a posterior medial network (PMN). How age-related differences in episodic detail generation relate to the PMN, however, remains unclear. The present study sought to examine individual differences, and the role of age, in PMN resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) associations with episodic detail generation. Late middle-aged and older adults (N = 41, ages 52-81), and young adults (N = 21, ages 19-35) were asked to describe recent personal events, and these memory narratives were coded for episodic, semantic and 'miscellaneous' details. Independent components analysis and regions-of-interest analyses were used to assess rsFC within the PMN separately for anterior connections (hippocampal and medial prefrontal) and posterior connections (hippocampal, parahippocampal and parieto-occipital), as these connections purportedly serve different functional roles in episodic detail generation. Compared to younger adults, older adults produced memory narratives with lower episodic specificity (ratio of episodic:total details) and a greater amount of semantic detail. Among the older adults, episodic detail amounts and episodic specificity were reduced with increasing age. There were no significant age differences in PMN rsFC. Stronger anterior PMN rsFC was related to lower episodic detail in the older adult group, but not in the young. Among the older adults, increasing age brought on an association between increased anterior PMN rsFC and reduced episodic specificity. In contrast, increasing age brought on an association between increased posterior PMN rsFC and increased semantic detail. The present study provides evidence that functional connectivity within the PMN, particularly anterior PMN, tracks individual differences in the amount of episodic details retrieved by older adults. Furthermore, these brain-behavior relationships appear to be age-specific, indicating that some process within aging alters the nature of how anterior PMN rsFC and episodic detail relate to each other. Whether this process entails an age-related loss of integrity to the PMN, or an age-related shift toward semantic retrieval, remains to be determined.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Grilli, M. D. (2021). Mapping the imaginative mind: Charting new paths forward. Current directions in psychological science, 30(1), 82-89.
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  The fields of psychology and neuroscience are in the midst of an explosion of research seeking to understand human - the ability to form thoughts and mental images that stretch beyond what is currently available to the senses. Imaginative thought is proving to be remarkably diverse, capturing the capacity to recall past experiences, consider what lies ahead, and understand others' minds, in addition to other forms of creative and spontaneous thinking. In the first part of this article, we introduce an integrative framework that attempts to explain how components of a core brain network facilitate interacting features of imagination that we refer to as the "mind's eye" and "mind's mind." We then highlight three emerging research directions that could inform our understanding of how imagination arises and unfolds in everyday life.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Woo, C. W., Wilcox, R., Eisenbarth, H., Kim, B., Han, J., Losin, E. A., & Wager, T. D. (2021). The conceptual building blocks of everyday thought: Tracking the emergence and dynamics of ruminative and nonruminative thinking. Journal of experimental psychology. General.
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  How do thoughts arise, unfold, and change over time? Are the contents and dynamics of everyday thought rooted in conceptual associations within one's semantic networks? To address these questions, we developed the Free Association Semantic task (FAST), whereby participants generate dynamic chains of conceptual associations in response to seed words that vary in valence. Ninety-four adults from a community sample completed the FAST task and additionally described and rated six of their most frequently occurring everyday thoughts. Text analysis and valence ratings revealed similarities in thematic and affective content between FAST concept chains and recurrent autobiographical thoughts. Dynamic analyses revealed that individuals higher in rumination were more strongly attracted to negative conceptual spaces and more likely to remain there longer. Overall, these findings provide quantitative evidence that conceptual associations may act as a semantic scaffold for more complex everyday thoughts, and that more negative and less dynamic conceptual associations in ruminative individuals mirror maladaptive repetitive thoughts in daily life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
• Arch, J. J., Wilcox, R. R., Ives, L. T., Sroloff, A., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2021). Off-task thinking among adults with and without social anxiety disorder: an ecological momentary assessment study. Cognition & emotion, 35(2), 269-281.
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  Although task-unrelated thinking (often conceptualised as "mind-wandering") has been increasingly investigated in recent years, the content and correlates of everyday off-task thought in clinical disorders, particularly anxiety disorders, remain poorly understood. We aimed to address this gap by using ecological momentary assessment to assess off-task and on-task thoughts in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and demographically matched controls. Findings showed that individuals with SAD more frequently engaged in internally oriented off-task thinking than healthy controls, but not externally oriented off-task thinking. Compared to thoughts focused on the task at hand, adults with SAD rated their internal off-task thoughts as less controllable, more self-focused, and as associated with worse mood than controls. However, when the SAD group was focused on the task at hand, group differences disappeared. Daily findings were paralleled by higher scores in SAD on a trait measure of unintentional, but not intentional, mind-wandering. In sum, the content and mood correlate of internally oriented off-task thoughts depended on the presence of clinical anxiety. In addition, focusing on the task at hand normalised thought content and mood in SAD, highlighting a window for intervention.
• Ashar, Y. K., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Halifax, J., Dimidjian, S., & Wager, T. D. (2021). Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 16(10), 1036-1047.
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  Compassion meditation (CM) is a promising intervention for enhancing compassion, although its active ingredients and neurobiological mechanisms are not well-understood. To investigate these, we conducted a three-armed placebo-controlled randomized trial (N = 57) with longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared a 4-week CM program delivered by smartphone application with (i) a placebo condition, presented to participants as the compassion-enhancing hormone oxytocin, and (ii) a condition designed to control for increased familiarity with suffering others, an element of CM which may promote compassion. At pre- and post-intervention, participants listened to compassion-eliciting narratives describing suffering others during fMRI. CM increased brain responses to suffering others in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) relative to the familiarity condition, p 
• Kam, J. W., Javed, J., Hart, C. M., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Tomfohr-Madsen, L. M., & Mills, C. (2021). Daily mindfulness training reduces negative impact of COVID-19 news exposure on affective well-being. Psychological research.
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  COVID-19 has led to mental health adversities worldwide. The current study examined whether daily practice of brief mindfulness training has a beneficial impact on affective well-being, and mitigates the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19 news during the pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned into a mindfulness training (MT) group or a waitlist control (WC) group. Participants in the MT group practiced guided mindfulness meditation for a minimum of 10 min each day for 10 days. Both groups completed questionnaires assessing well-being at baseline and after the 10-day period. We also included four ecological momentary assessments (EMA) interspersed throughout the day to measure fine-grained affective states and recent exposure to COVID-19-related news, which has been linked to negative affect. We observed an increase in positive affect in the MT group compared to the WC group in the post-training assessment. However, no group differences emerged in the other three post-training affective measures of negative affect, anxiety and depression. EMA revealed that the MT group also showed more positive affective valence than the WC group across the 10 days. Notably, the WC group reported more negative affective valence following COVID-19 news exposure, whereas the MT group was not impacted. Taken together, our study indicates brief sessions of guided mindfulness meditation during COVID-19 may boost positive affect and serve as a protective buffer against the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19-related news on affective well-being. These findings highlight the utility of mindfulness meditation as an accessible and cost-effective technique to elevate positive affect amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Martin-Willett, R., Morris, B., Wilcox, R., Giordano, G., Andrews-Hanna, J., Banich, M., & Bryan, A. B. (2021). The influence of a 16-week exercise program, APOE status, and age on executive function task performance: A randomized trial. Experimental gerontology, 152, 111431.
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  Previous research has shown beneficial cognitive changes following exercise training in older adults. However, the work on the potential moderating effects of Apoliprotein E (APOE) ε4 carrier status has been mixed, and the role of exercise intensity remains largely unexplored. The present study sought to examine the influence of APOE ε4 status and exercise intensity on measures of cognitive performance in a group of older adults. Cross-sectional comparisons between a group of younger inactive adults (n = 44, age = 28.86 ± 0.473 SD, 60.5% female) and a group of older inactive adults (n = 142, age = 67.8 ± 5.4, 62.7% female) were made on baseline measurements of APOE ε4 status, VOpeak, and cognitive performance in the domain of executive functioning. The older adults also participated in a randomized controlled exercise trial, exercising three times per week for 16-weeks in either a low-intensity continuous training (LICT) group or a moderate-intensity continuous training plus interval training (MICT+IT) group at the Center for Health and Neuroscience, Genes, and Environment (CUChange) Exercise Laboratory. Follow-up measurements of VOpeak and cognitive performance were collected on the older adults after the exercise intervention. Cross-sectional comparisons between the older and younger adults demonstrated significant impairments among older adults in Stroop effect on error and time, Category Switch mixing effects, and Keep Track task. This impairment was not moderated by APOE ε4 carrier status. Improvements from pre- to post-exercise intervention were observed in both exercise groups in Stroop effect on error ([F (1, 256) = 9.381, p 
• Mills, C., Porter, A. R., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Christoff, K., & Colby, A. (2021). How task-unrelated and freely moving thought relate to affect: Evidence for dissociable patterns in everyday life. Emotion (Washington, D.C.).
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  Much of our knowledge about the correlates of mind-wandering comes from assessing task-unrelated thought. Less is known about the correlates of freely moving thought, a dimension that assesses the degree to which thoughts arise and unfold with low levels of guidance or constraints. Task-unrelated thought is consistently associated with more negative affective valence compared with being on task; however, it is unclear whether freely moving thought shares the same relationship with affect. We conducted two ecological momentary assessment studies in the context of everyday life and found that the two dimensions have different affective correlates. In Study 1, task-unrelated thought was associated with less positive concurrent valence than being on-task. However, freely moving thought was associated with more positive concurrent valence and was predictive of more positive valence at a subsequent timepoint. Freely moving thought, but not task-unrelated thought, also positively predicted concurrent arousal. Computational sentiment analyses of participants' thought descriptions offered convergent evidence of differential relationships between the two thought dimensions and affect. Study 2 used different measurement scales to assess whether (a) the pattern of findings replicated and (b) if the effects were robust to changes in measurement. The main findings were replicated: task-unrelated thought was negatively associated with concurrent valence, whereas freely moving thought was positively associated with concurrent valence. However, freely moving thought did not predict subsequent valence and was not related to concurrent arousal. The most robust findings related to concurrent valence. Although mind-wandering has acquired a relatively negative reputation to date, our findings suggest that there might be positive aspects that remain unexplored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
• Raffaelli, Q., Mills, C., de Stefano, N. A., Mehl, M. R., Chambers, K., Fitzgerald, S. A., Wilcox, R., Christoff, K., Andrews, E. S., Grilli, M. D., O'Connor, M. F., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2021). The think aloud paradigm reveals differences in the content, dynamics and conceptual scope of resting state thought in trait brooding. Scientific reports, 11(1), 19362.
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  Although central to well-being, functional and dysfunctional thoughts arise and unfold over time in ways that remain poorly understood. To shed light on these mechanisms, we adapted a "think aloud" paradigm to quantify the content and dynamics of individuals' thoughts at rest. Across two studies, external raters hand coded the content of each thought and computed dynamic metrics spanning duration, transition probabilities between affective states, and conceptual similarity over time. Study 1 highlighted the paradigm's high ecological validity and revealed a narrowing of conceptual scope following more negative content. Study 2 replicated Study 1's findings and examined individual difference predictors of trait brooding, a maladaptive form of rumination. Across individuals, increased trait brooding was linked to thoughts rated as more negative, past-oriented and self-focused. Longer negative and shorter positive thoughts were also apparent as brooding increased, as well as a tendency to shift away from positive conceptual states, and a stronger narrowing of conceptual scope following negative thoughts. Importantly, content and dynamics explained independent variance, accounting for a third of the variance in brooding. These results uncover a real-time cognitive signature of rumination and highlight the predictive and ecological validity of the think aloud paradigm applied to resting state cognition.
• Singh, A., Westlin, C., Eisenbarth, H., Reynolds Losin, E. A., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Wager, T. D., Satpute, A. B., Barrett, L. F., Brooks, D. H., & Erdogmus, D. (2021). Variation is the Norm: Brain State Dynamics Evoked By Emotional Video Clips. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference, 2021, 6003-6007.
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  For the last several decades, emotion research has attempted to identify a "biomarker" or consistent pattern of brain activity to characterize a single category of emotion (e.g., fear) that will remain consistent across all instances of that category, regardless of individual and context. In this study, we investigated variation rather than consistency during emotional experiences while people watched video clips chosen to evoke instances of specific emotion categories. Specifically, we developed a sequential probabilistic approach to model the temporal dynamics in a participant's brain activity during video viewing. We characterized brain states during these clips as distinct state occupancy periods between state transitions in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal patterns. We found substantial variation in the state occupancy probability distributions across individuals watching the same video, supporting the hypothesis that when it comes to the brain correlates of emotional experience, variation may indeed be the norm.
• Acevedo-Molina, M. C., Novak, A. W., Gregoire, L. M., Mann, L. G., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Grilli, M. D. (2020). Emotion matters: The influence of valence on episodic future thinking in young and older adults. Consciousness and cognition, 85, 103023.
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  In young adults, valence not only alters the degree to which future events are imagined in rich episodic detail, but also how memorable these events are later on. For older adults, how valence influences episodic detail generation while imagining future events, or recalling these details at another time, remains unclear. We investigated the effect of valence on the specificity and memorability of episodic future thinking (EFT) in young and older adults. Among young and older adults, negative EFT was accompanied by less episodic detail generation relative to positive and neutral EFT. A similar reduction in episodic specificity for negative EFT was found two days later when participants recalled their previously imagined events. Notably, while older adults generated less episodically specific future thoughts relative to young adults, age did not influence the effect of valence on episodic detail generation at imagination or recollection.
• Doucet, G. E., Janiri, D., Howard, R., O'Brien, M., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Frangou, S. (2020). Transdiagnostic and disease-specific abnormalities in the default-mode network hubs in psychiatric disorders: A meta-analysis of resting-state functional imaging studies. European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 63(1), e57.
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  The default mode network (DMN) dysfunction has emerged as a consistent biological correlate of multiple psychiatric disorders. Specifically, there is evidence of alterations in DMN cohesiveness in schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders. The aim of this study was to synthesize at a fine spatial resolution the intra-network functional connectivity of the DMN in adults diagnosed with schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, capitalizing on powerful meta-analytic tools provided by activation likelihood estimation.
• Losin, E. A., Woo, C. W., Medina, N. A., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Eisenbarth, H., & Wager, T. D. (2020). Neural and sociocultural mediators of ethnic differences in pain. Nature human behaviour, 4(5), 517-530.
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  Understanding ethnic differences in pain is important for addressing disparities in pain care. A common belief is that African Americans are hyposensitive to pain compared to Whites, but African Americans show increased pain sensitivity in clinical and laboratory settings. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these differences are unknown. We studied an ethnicity- and gender-balanced sample of African Americans, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites using functional magnetic resonance imaging during thermal pain. Higher pain report in African Americans was mediated by discrimination and increased frontostriatal circuit activations associated with pain rating, discrimination, experimenter trust and extranociceptive aspects of pain elsewhere. In contrast, the neurologic pain signature, a neuromarker sensitive and specific to nociceptive pain, mediated painful heat effects on pain report largely similarly in African American and other groups. Findings identify a brain basis for higher pain in African Americans related to interpersonal context and extranociceptive central pain mechanisms and suggest that nociceptive pain processing may be similar across ethnicities.
• Walpola, I. C., Muller, A. J., Hall, J. M., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Irish, M., Lewis, S. J., Shine, J. M., & O'Callaghan, C. (2020). Mind-wandering in Parkinson's disease hallucinations reflects primary visual and default network coupling. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 125, 233-245.
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  Visual hallucinations are an underappreciated symptom affecting the majority of patients during the natural history of Parkinson's disease. Little is known about other forms of abstract and internally generated cognition - such as mind-wandering - in this population, but emerging evidence suggests that an interplay between the brain's primary visual and default networks might play a crucial role in both internally generated imagery and hallucinations. Here, we explored the association between mind-wandering and visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease, and their relationship with brain network coupling. We administered a validated thought-sampling task to 38 Parkinson's disease patients (18 with hallucinations; 20 without) and 40 controls, to test the hypothesis that individuals with hallucinations experience an increased frequency of mind-wandering. Group differences in the association between mind-wandering frequency and brain network coupling were also examined using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results showed that patients with hallucinations exhibited significantly higher mind-wandering frequencies compared to non-hallucinators, who in turn had reduced levels of mind-wandering relative to controls. At the level of brain networks, inter-network connectivity and seed-to-voxel analyses identified that increased mind-wandering in the hallucinating versus non-hallucinating group was associated with greater coupling between the primary visual cortex and dorsal default network. Taken together, our results suggest a relative preservation of mind-wandering in Parkinson's disease patients who experience visual hallucinations, which is associated with increased visual cortex-default network coupling. We propose that the preservation of florid abstract and internally generated cognition in the context of the Parkinson's disease can contribute to visual hallucinations, whereas healthy individuals experience only the vivid images of the mind's eye. These findings refine current models of visual hallucinations by identifying a specific cognitive phenomenon and neural substrate consistent with the top-down influences over perception that have been implicated in hallucinations across neuropsychiatric disorders.
• Wank, A. A., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Grilli, M. D. (2021). Searching for the past: Exploring the dynamics of direct and generative autobiographical memory reconstruction among young and cognitively normal older adults. Memory & cognition, 49(3), 422-437.
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  Episodic autobiographical memories (EAMs) can come to mind through two retrieval routes, one direct (i.e., an EAM is retrieved almost instantaneously) and the other generative (i.e., by using autobiographical/general knowledge to cue an EAM). It is well established that normal cognitive aging is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of EAMs, but the contributions of direct or generative reconstruction to the age-related shift toward general memories remain unknown. Prior studies also have not clarified whether similar cognitive mechanisms facilitate the ability to successfully reconstruct EAMs and elaborate them in event-specific detail. To address these gaps in knowledge, young and older participants were asked to reconstruct EAMs using a "think-aloud" paradigm and then describe in detail a subset of retrieved memories. An adapted scoring procedure was implemented to categorize memories accessed during reconstruction, and the Autobiographical Interview (AI) scoring procedure was utilized for elaboration scoring. Results indicated that in comparison with young adults, older adults not only engaged in direct retrieval less often than young adults but they also more often ended generative retrieval at general events instead of EAMs. The ability to elaborate EAMs with internal details was positively associated with the ability to use generative retrieval to reconstruct EAMs in both young and older adults, but there was no relationship between internal detail elaboration and direct retrieval in either age group. Taken together, these results indicate age-related differences in direct and generative retrieval contribute to overgeneral autobiographical memory and they support a connection between generative retrieval and elaboration.
• Wank, A. A., Mehl, M. R., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Polsinelli, A. J., Moseley, S., Glisky, E. L., & Grilli, M. D. (2020). Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults' Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 14, 238.
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  The retrieval of autobiographical memories is an integral part of everyday social interactions. Prior laboratory research has revealed that older age is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of autobiographical episodic memories, and the ability to elaborate these memories with episodic details. However, how age-related reductions in episodic specificity unfold in everyday social contexts remains largely unknown. Also, constraints of the laboratory-based approach have limited our understanding of how autobiographical semantic memory is linked to older age. To address these gaps in knowledge, we used a smartphone application known as the Electronically Activated Recorder, or "EAR," to unobtrusively capture real-world conversations over 4 days. In a sample of 102 cognitively normal older adults, we extracted instances where memories and future thoughts were shared by the participants, and we scored the shared episodic memories and future thoughts for their make-up of episodic and semantic detail. We found that older age was associated with a reduction in real-world sharing of autobiographical episodic and semantic memories. We also found that older age was linked to less episodically and semantically detailed descriptions of autobiographical episodic memories. Frequency and level of detail of shared future thoughts yielded weaker relationships with age, which may be related to the low frequency of future thoughts in general. Similar to laboratory research, there was no correlation between autobiographical episodic detail sharing and a standard episodic memory test. However, in contrast to laboratory studies, episodic detail production while sharing autobiographical episodic memories was weakly related to episodic detail production while describing future events, unrelated to working memory, and not different between men and women. Overall, our findings provide novel evidence of how older age relates to episodic specificity when autobiographical memories are assessed unobtrusively and objectively "in the wild."
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Grilli, M. D., & Irish, M. (2019). A review and reappraisal of the default network in normal aging and dementia. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.384
• Irish, M., Goldberg, Z. L., Alaeddin, S., O'Callaghan, C., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2019). Age-related changes in the temporal focus and self-referential content of spontaneous cognition during periods of low cognitive demand. Psychological research, 83(4), 747-760.
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  An intriguing aspect of human cognition is the unique capacity to mentally retreat from our immediate surroundings to consider perspectives distinct from the here and now. Despite increasing interest in this phenomenon, relatively little is known regarding age-related changes in off-task, self-generated thought (often referred to as "mind-wandering"), particularly under conditions of low cognitive demand. While a number of studies have investigated the temporal orientation of mind-wandering with increasing age, findings have been largely inconsistent. Here, we explored the frequency, temporal focus, and self-referential/social content of spontaneous task-unrelated, perceptually decoupled thought in 30 young and 33 healthy older adults using the Shape Expectations task, a validated experimental paradigm in which discrete facets of inner mentation are quantified along a conceptual continuum using open-ended report. Participants also completed the daydreaming subscale of the Imaginal Process Inventory (IPI) as a trait measure of mind-wandering propensity. Significant group differences emerged on the Shape Expectations task, with reduced instances of mind-wandering in the context of elevated task-related thoughts relative to younger adults. In terms of temporal focus, a preponderance of present/atemporal off-task thoughts was evident irrespective of group; however, significantly higher levels of future-oriented thoughts were provided by younger adults, contrasting with significantly higher instances of retrospection in the older group. In addition, older adults displayed significantly fewer incidences of self-referential cognition relative to their younger counterparts. Our findings indicate a distinct attenuation of off-task, self-generated thought processes with increasing age, with evidence for a shift in temporal focus and self-referential quality, during periods of low cognitive demand.
• O'Callaghan, C., Shine, J. M., Hodges, J. R., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Irish, M. (2019). Hippocampal atrophy and intrinsic brain network dysfunction relate to alterations in mind wandering in neurodegeneration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(8), 3316-3321.
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  Mind wandering represents the human capacity for internally focused thought and relies upon the brain's default network and its interactions with attentional networks. Studies have characterized mind wandering in healthy people, yet there is limited understanding of how this capacity is affected in clinical populations. This paper used a validated thought-sampling task to probe mind wandering capacity in two neurodegenerative disorders: behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia [(bvFTD); = 35] and Alzheimer's disease [(AD); = 24], compared with older controls ( = 37). These patient groups were selected due to canonical structural and functional changes across sites of the default and frontoparietal networks and well-defined impairments in cognitive processes that support mind wandering. Relative to the controls, bvFTD patients displayed significantly reduced mind wandering capacity, offset by a significant increase in stimulus-bound thought. In contrast, AD patients demonstrated comparable levels of mind wandering to controls, in the context of a relatively subtle shift toward stimulus-/task-related forms of thought. In the patient groups, mind wandering was associated with gray matter integrity in the hippocampus/parahippocampus, striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. Resting-state functional connectivity revealed associations between mind wandering capacity and connectivity within and between regions of the frontoparietal and default networks with distinct patterns evident in patients vs. controls. These findings support a relationship between altered mind wandering capacity in neurodegenerative disorders and structural and functional integrity of the default and frontoparietal networks. This paper highlights a dimension of cognitive dysfunction not well documented in neurodegenerative disorders and validates current models of mind wandering in a clinical population.
• Strikwerda-Brown, C., Grilli, M. D., Andrews-Hanna, J., & Irish, M. (2019). "All is not lost"-Rethinking the nature of memory and the self in dementia. Ageing research reviews, 54, 100932.
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  Memory and the self have long been considered intertwined, leading to the assumption that without memory, there can be no self. This line of reasoning has led to the misconception that a loss of memory in dementia necessarily results in a diminished sense of self. Here, we challenge this assumption by considering discrete facets of self-referential memory, and their relative profiles of loss and sparing, across three neurodegenerative disorders: Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. By exploring canonical expressions of the self across past, present, and future contexts in dementia, relative to healthy ageing, we reconcile previous accounts of loss of self in dementia, and propose a new framework for understanding and managing everyday functioning and behaviour. Notably, our approach highlights the multifaceted and dynamic nature in which the temporally-extended self is likely to change in healthy and pathological ageing, with important ramifications for development of person-centred care. Collectively, we aim to promote a cohesive sense of self in dementia across past, present, and future contexts, by demonstrating how, ultimately, 'All is not lost'.
• Zabelina, D. L., Friedman, N. P., & Andrews-Hanna, J. (2019). Unity and diversity of executive functions in creativity. Consciousness and cognition, 68, 47-56.
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  Increasing evidence suggests that executive functions (EFs) - a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate thoughts and behaviors - are relevant for creativity. However, EF is not a unitary process, and it remains unclear which specific EFs are involved. The present study examined the association between the three EFs, both uniquely (EF-Specific) and together (Common EF), and three measures of creativity. Participants (N = 47) completed a divergent thinking test, and self-reported their real-life creative accomplishments. A subset of participants indicated their involvement in the artistic or information technology (IT) professions. Results indicated that fluency (but not originality) of divergent thinking was uniquely predicted by working memory Updating. Better response Inhibition predicted higher number of real-world artistic creative achievements. Involvement in the artistic (versus IT) professions was associated with better Common EF, and with enhanced mental set Shifting abilities. Results demonstrate that different EFs predict creativity depending on its operational definition.
• Arch, J. J., Landy, L. N., Schneider, R. L., Koban, L., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2018). Self-compassion induction enhances recovery from social stressors: Comparing adults with social anxiety disorder and healthy controls. Anxiety, stress, and coping, 31(5), 594-609.
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  This study evaluates the process and consequence of inducing self-compassion during recovery from social performance stressors. Though interest in self-compassion as an intervention target is growing, extant findings suggest that initially cultivating self-compassion can be challenging for those with high self-criticism and anxiety, common features of social anxiety disorder (SAD).
• Christoff, K., Mills, C., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Irving, Z. C., Thompson, E., Fox, K. C., & Kam, J. W. (2018). Mind-Wandering as a Scientific Concept: Cutting through the Definitional Haze. Trends in cognitive sciences, 22(11), 957-959.
• Dixon, M. L., De La Vega, A., Mills, C., Andrews-Hanna, J., Spreng, R. N., Cole, M. W., & Christoff, K. (2018). Heterogeneity within the frontoparietal control network and its relationship to the default and dorsal attention networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(7), E1598-E1607.
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  The frontoparietal control network (FPCN) plays a central role in executive control. It has been predominantly viewed as a unitary domain general system. Here, we examined patterns of FPCN functional connectivity (FC) across multiple conditions of varying cognitive demands, to test for FPCN heterogeneity. We identified two distinct subsystems within the FPCN based on hierarchical clustering and machine learning classification analyses of within-FPCN FC patterns. These two FPCN subsystems exhibited distinct patterns of FC with the default network (DN) and the dorsal attention network (DAN). FPCN exhibited stronger connectivity with the DN than the DAN, whereas FPCN exhibited the opposite pattern. This twofold FPCN differentiation was observed across four independent datasets, across nine different conditions (rest and eight tasks), at the level of individual-participant data, as well as in meta-analytic coactivation patterns. Notably, the extent of FPCN differentiation varied across conditions, suggesting flexible adaptation to task demands. Finally, we used meta-analytic tools to identify several functional domains associated with the DN and DAN that differentially predict activation in the FPCN subsystems. These findings reveal a flexible and heterogeneous FPCN organization that may in part emerge from separable DN and DAN processing streams. We propose that FPCN may be preferentially involved in the regulation of introspective processes, whereas FPCN may be preferentially involved in the regulation of visuospatial perceptual attention.
• Fox, K. C., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Mills, C., Dixon, M. L., Markovic, J., Thompson, E., & Christoff, K. (2018). Affective neuroscience of self-generated thought. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
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  Despite increasing scientific interest in self-generated thought-mental content largely independent of the immediate environment-there has yet to be any comprehensive synthesis of the subjective experience and neural correlates of affect in these forms of thinking. Here, we aim to develop an integrated affective neuroscience encompassing many forms of self-generated thought-normal and pathological, moderate and excessive, in waking and in sleep. In synthesizing existing literature on this topic, we reveal consistent findings pertaining to the prevalence, valence, and variability of emotion in self-generated thought, and highlight how these factors might interact with self-generated thought to influence general well-being. We integrate these psychological findings with recent neuroimaging research, bringing attention to the neural correlates of affect in self-generated thought. We show that affect in self-generated thought is prevalent, positively biased, highly variable (both within and across individuals), and consistently recruits many brain areas implicated in emotional processing, including the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, insula, and medial prefrontal cortex. Many factors modulate these typical psychological and neural patterns, however; the emerging affective neuroscience of self-generated thought must endeavor to link brain function and subjective experience in both everyday self-generated thought as well as its dysfunctions in mental illness.
• Pelletier-Baldelli, A., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Mittal, V. A. (2018). Resting state connectivity dynamics in individuals at risk for psychosis. Journal of abnormal psychology, 127(3), 314-325.
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  Clarifying dynamic fluctuations in resting-state connectivity in individuals at risk for psychosis (termed clinical high risk [CHR]) may inform understanding of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, which have been associated with dysconnectivity and aberrant salience processing. Dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) investigations provide insight into how neural networks exchange information over time. Currently, there are no published DFC studies involving CHR individuals. This is notable, because understanding how networks may come together and disassociate over time could lend insight into the neural communication that underlies psychosis development and symptomatology. A sliding-window analysis was utilized to examine DFC (defined as the standard deviation over a series of sliding windows) in resting-state scans in a total of 31 CHR individuals and 28 controls. Clinical assessments at baseline and 12 months later were conducted. CHR participants exhibited less DFC (lower standard deviation) in connectivity involving areas of both the salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN) with regions involved in sensory, motor, attention, and internal cognitive functions relative to controls. Within CHR participants, this pattern was associated with greater positive symptoms 12 months later, possibly reflecting a mechanism behind aberrant salience processing. Higher SN-DMN internetwork DFC related to elevated baseline negative symptoms, anxiety, and depression in CHR participants, which may indicate neurological processes underlying worry and rumination. Overall, through highlighting unique DFC properties within CHR individuals and detecting informative links with clinically relevant symptomatology, results support dysconnectivity and aberrant salience processing models of psychosis. (PsycINFO Database Record
• Ashar, Y. K., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Dimidjian, S., & Wager, T. D. (2017). Empathic Care and Distress: Predictive Brain Markers and Dissociable Brain Systems. Neuron, 94(6), 1263-1273.e4.
• Dixon, M. L., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Spreng, R. N., Irving, Z. C., Mills, C., Girn, M., & Christoff, K. (2017). Interactions between the default network and dorsal attention network vary across default subsystems, time, and cognitive states. NeuroImage, 147, 632-649.
• Koban, L., Schneider, R., Ashar, Y. K., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Landy, L., Moscovitch, D. A., Wager, T. D., & Arch, J. J. (2017). Social anxiety is characterized by biased learning about performance and the self. Emotion, 17(8), 1144-1155.
• Pelletier-Baldelli, A., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Mittal, V. A. (2017). Resting State Connectivity Dynamics in Individuals at Risk for Psychosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Presentations

• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, February). The Default mode Network: Emerging themes and applications to aging and Alzheimer's disease. Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Retreat. Grand Canyon, AZ.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, January). The Science of Mind-Wandering. NSCS Student Association. University of Arizona.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, July). Where's My Mind? A smartphone app to assess the content, correlates and consequences of mind-wandering. Indonesian-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium. Ambon, Indonesia: Indonesian-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, June). Where's My Mind? Content, Correlates, and Consequences of Daily Thinking Patterns. Vancouver Mind-Wandering Symposium. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, March). The Costs & Benefits of an Untamed Mind. Department of Psychology Colloquium. Tucson, AZ.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, May). The Brain's Default Network: Relevance to Aging and Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's Association Conference. Mayo Clinic, AZ.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, October). The Dynamics of Thought: Language as a Window into Meandering and Sticky Minds. Cognitive Science Colloquia. Tucson, AZ.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, September). Discourse in the Psychology of Mind-Wandering. Mind-Wandering Research Group. University of Oslo, Norway.
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, September). Dynamic Regulation of Internal Experience. Neuroscience of Enduring Change Conference. Tucson, AZ.

Poster Presentations

• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Gardiner, C. K., Helmuth, T., Davis, A. E., Giordano, G. R., Bennett, G., Banich, M. T., & Bryan, A. D. (2017, November). Socioemotional and neural correlates of off-task thinking in young and old adults. 47th Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference. Washington D.C..
• Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Wilcox, R., Renger, J., Ives, L., Sroloff, A., & Arch, J. (2017, July). Where's My Mind? A smartphone app to assess the content, correlates and consequences of mind-wandering. Indonesian-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium. Ambon, Indonesia.
• Raffaelli, Q., Drody, A. C., Mills, C., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Christoff, K. (2017, December). An investigation of the effect of caffeine on the experience of boredom. Cognitive Conclave Conference. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.
• Wilcox, R., Woo, C., Losin, E. R., Eisenbarth, H., Wager, T., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2017, December). Assessing The Effects of Ruminative Tendencies On The Dynamics of Associative Processing. Cognitive Conclave Conference. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.