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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

I would also like to thank @physiocognition.bsky.social, @giga-crc-hi.bsky.social @universitedeliege.bsky.social and FRS-FNRS (www.frs-fnrs.be) for funding and supporting my research.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

This was a deeply collaborative work, and as such I would like to express my thanks to supervisor @ademertzi.bsky.social and my collaborators for this project @thomasandrillon.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @anikokusztor.bsky.social.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

Our findings build on the quest to bridge mental content and its absence with measurable brain activity and provide insights into how ongoing thinking is maintained during wakefulness.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

Together, where do we stand with these findings? 🤔

By bridging such multimodal neural information, we overall conclude that “thought-less” mental states come in different types (as recently hypothesised in Andrillon, 2025 🤯)!

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

5) Finally, a Canonical Correlations Analysis between EEG SW-like activity and fMRI connectivity patterns showed that larger SW amplitude and steeper downslope correlated with the hyperconnected brain pattern.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

4) Here is the catch: the brain organised similar to the “rich” P1 during MB and alertness reports. BUT, during low vigilance, the brain resembled the overconnected P5. Critically, the brain resembled P5 during MB too, but only when participants reported being alert.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

3) Using K-Means clustering, we found that time-varying functional connectivity could be summarised in five connectivity patterns. These varied from patterns of anticorrelations (P1-3) to patterns with weak synchronization (P4) and overall global synchronization (P5).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

2) When we examined the fMRI global signal (GS) amplitude, a proxy for cortical arousal, both MB and low vigilance were associated with higher GS amplitude, as in Mortaheb 2022.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

We found:

1) while MB occurred infrequently, the probability of reporting MB increased when participants reported sleepiness.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

During the SART, participants were probed about their thoughts (on-task, off-task, or blank) and their alertness level (high or low).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

❓ Could it be that SW-like activity and fMRI hyperconnectivity during MB reflect two sides of the same coin and that more fine-grained neural fingerprints of MB exist🎯 We utilised joint EEG-fMRI and experience sampling during a sustained attention task (SART) in healthy participants (n=38)

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

We also know that MB is related to a fMRI brain pattern of overall positive connectivity (Mortaheb, 2022).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

To date, we know that the EEG correlates of MB resemble slow-wave-like (SW) activity, typically observed in NREM sleep, termed “local sleeps” (Andrillon, 2021).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

Mind blanking (MB) is a mental state in which individuals have no mental content to report or are unable to report any content (Boulakis & Demertzi, 2025). But how is it possible to be conscious and yet have nothing in the mind? Perhaps the brain holds the answer 🤔

a man says i 'm coming out blank in a netflix advertisement

ALT: a man says i 'm coming out blank in a netflix advertisement

media.tenor.com

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 14h

🚨Preprint alert 🚨. Our work “Distinct cortical profiles underlie the common reportability of thought-free experiences” is available at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... 🧵A thread ...

Distinct cortical profiles underlie the common reportability of thought-free experiences

Mind blanking (MB) is a mental state of seemingly no reportable thought content. The question of how we can entertain no thoughts while awake is challenging for the study of spontaneous thinking. By c...

www.biorxiv.org

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

I would also like to thank @physiocognition.bsky.social @giga-crc-hi.bsky.social @universitedeliege.bsky.social and FNRS (frs-fnrs.be) for funding and supporting my research.

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

This was a deeply collaborative work, and as such I would like to express my thanks to supervisor @ademertzi.bsky.social and my collaborators for this project @thomasandrillon.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @anikokusztor.bsky.social.

1 1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

Our findings build on the quest to bridge thought content and its absence with measurable brain activity and provide insights into how ongoing thinking is maintained during wakefulness.

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

Together, where do we stand with these findings? 🤔

By bridging such multimodal neural information, we overall conclude that “thought-less” mental states come in different types( as recently hypothesised🤯 Andrillon, 2025).

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

6) Finally, a Canonical Correlations Analysis between EEG SW-like activity and fMRI connectivity patterns showed that larger SW amplitude and steeper downslope correlated with the hyperconnected brain pattern.

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

4) Here is the catch: the brain organised similar to the “rich” P1 during MB and alertness reports. BUT, during low vigilance, the brain resembled the hyperconnected P5. Critically, the brain resembled P5 during MB too, but only when participants reported being alert.

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

3) Using K-Means clustering, we found that time-varying functional connectivity could be summarised in five connectivity patterns. These varied from patterns of anticorrelations (P1-3) to patterns with weak synchronization (P4) and overall global synchronization (P5).

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

2) When we examined the fMRI global signal (GS) amplitude, a proxy for cortical arousal, both MB and low vigilance were associated with higher GS amplitude, as in Mortaheb 2022.

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

We found:

1) while MB occured infrequently, the probability of reporting MB increased when participants reported sleepiness.

1

Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 15h

During the SART, participants were probed about their thoughts (on-task, off-task, or blank) and their alertness level (high or low).

1