iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Thomas Andrillon @thomasandrillon.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

New preprint! 🧠🧪 Spontaneous slow waves index multiple dimensions of recovery in Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Led by Alessia Ruyant, co-supervised by @benrohaut.bsky.social 🧵👇

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Thank you to my co-authors Marion Balla, @agusaragon.bsky.social, David Stawarczyk, @briganti.bsky.social, @ademertzi.bsky.social & Steve Majerus. Also thank you to the @physiocognition.bsky.social, PsyNCog Reasearch Unit, @giga-crc-hi.bsky.social & FRS-FNRS.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Overall, we show that MB is a heterogenous mental state and that the L-MBS is a useful tool to track the heterogeneity of self-reported MB. In turn, the Bayesian networks provide data-driven predictions about prospective interventional studies of self-reported MB.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Finally, Bayesian networks isolated Markov Blankets around the L-MBS factors, highlights directional paths from metacognitive monitoring to experience of blank and from autobiographical errors to MB memory failures.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Using Gaussian Graphical Models, we examined how L-MBS factors are embedded within interacting cognitive domains. “Experience of blank” was linked to metacognitive monitoring, whereas “Memory Failures” were linked to everyday memory difficulties.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

When checking latent structure, EFA / CFA analysis yielded three-factors : (1) experience of blank moments, (2) memory failures, and (3) stress overflow.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Across 644 participants, the L-MBS first showed adequate internal consistency and convergent validity with self-reported measures of mind-wandering, attention, memory, metacognition and arousal.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Example items: -> "I lose track of my thoughts and can’t remember what I was thinking" -> "Periods of time can pass when I am not thinking of anything" -> "During the day, I notice that I am thinking of nothing".

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Here, we tackled these issues by adopting a trait-level approach. We developed the Liège Mind-Blanking Scale (L-MBS) to map the experiential heterogeneity of self-reported MB.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

When looking closer, the label “blank” comes with two challenges: (a) it can undercut the heterogeneity of MB instances, and (b) can introduce conceptual and methodological haziness about the psychological origins of MB.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

When probed to report their thoughts, people will sometimes say they are thinking of nothing or that their mind was empty. This experience is called mind-blanking (MB; Andrillon et al, TiCS 2025).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

🚨Preprint alert🚨 Want to learn about trait mind-blanking? Then check out our new preprint “The Liège Mind-Blanking Scale: a comprehensive scale to assess the heterogeneity of mind-blanking cognitive and experiential aspects” (osf.io/preprints/ps...). A 🧵 ...

osf.io

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Matthieu Koroma @matthieukoroma.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

🚨New preprint What happens to your 🫀 when a different sound or a silence is played when hearing your heartbeat ? It slows down! But why? This is what we investigated! Please read our new preprint to find out & this thread for discovering our key results👇. 1/8 doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.org

Heartbeat-locked auditory deviations slow down cardiac activity

Our responses to environmental inputs depend on the variations of our own physiological activity. However, the mechanisms by which the integration of sensory information with interoceptive signals sha...

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Physiology of Cognition Lab @physiocognition.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Our lab participates at @assc2026.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Physiology of Cognition Lab @physiocognition.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

July 3 "Learning-like processes are revealed in low arousal by employing interoceptive stimulation" @parboulakis.bsky.social Conc Sess 19, 2PM "How to catch a blank mind? Neural similarities and differences between self- and probe-caught mind blanking" @agusaragon.bsky.social Conc Sess 27, 5PM

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Co-authored with @ademertzi.bsky.social @thomasandrillon.bsky.social , and @jdsitt.bsky.social. A wonderful collection, edited by Lucia Melloni and Umberto Olcese.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Blank, and you might miss it. Our chapter, “Spontaneous Thoughts and Experiences across Wakefulness and Sleep,” for the upcoming book The Scientific Study of Consciousness: Experimental & Theoretical Approaches, is now available at www.horizon-minds.com.

horizon-minds.com

Horizon Minds

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I will be presenting two posters at #escan2026, with new results from @physiocognition.bsky.social * The novel Liege Mind-Blanking scale! 04/06/2026 12:00-02:00pm *Evidence for sentience processes in anesthesia through interoceptive stimulation! 06/06/2026 01:00-03:00pm Hit me up for apero!

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Many thanks to my co-authors for tremendously helping me @agusaragon.bsky.social @ademertzi.bsky.social David Stawarczyk. Also, thank you @physiocognition.bsky.social @giga-crc-hi.bsky.social @universitedeliege.bsky.social Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition (PsyNCog).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Key outtakes: MB occurs infrequently, is mediated by modifications in arousal levels, and exhibits consistency across sampling approaches. Therefore, by including it in experience-sampling paradigms, we improve the granularity of mental state characterisation.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

And what if you want to include MB in your own studies? For that, we recommend taking advantage of our power simulations! Based on our MB normative rate, we propose that a sample size of 35 participants and 50 probes would suffice to achieve 95% power.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

However, we did not find strong evidence for a relationship between MB and ADHD, a clinical population previously postulated to experience more MB (Van den Driessche et al, 2017, Psychol Sci).

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Could there be a factor that consistently alters MB report rates? YES! Arousal. We found that MB frequency increased both during sleep deprivation and when individuals self-reported low vigilance levels.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

A Bayesian meta-regression showed that most experience-sampling parameters (e.g number of probes) do not affect MB report rates. Yet, we found that senior people report MB less frequently.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

We found that MB is consistently reported at 10% of total probes, with a low amount of heterogeneity across and within studies.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Yet, no one has so far described how frequently people report MB. To answer this, we aggregated experience sampling reports from 59 studies, spanning ~8500 individuals and ~240000 probes.

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

People sometimes say they are thinking of nothing or that their minds are empty. Mind blanking refers to these infrequent moments of thought emptiness (Andrillon et al, TiCS 2025).

static.klipy.com

Brain Loading... No Brain

ALT: Brain Loading... No Brain

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

🚨Preprint alert🚨. Ever wondered how often people blank? Then check our new paper “How often do we blank? A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of mind blanking report rates during experience-sampling” (osf.io/preprints/ps...). A 🧵 thread ...

osf.io

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Michael J. Kane @michaeljkane.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I hope to have time soon to write a little thread on this, but for now here's the PsyArXiv link to a new preprint from our lab on the construct validity of probed mind-blanking reports. Chandni Lal will be presenting this work as a poster at the upcoming Psychonomics meeting.

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

How I imagine it must be like to work in a small university town

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Physiology of Cognition Lab @physiocognition.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

🧪 Our new study on decoding #MindBlanking events started yesterday. The pilot was successful, and we now fine-tune the details. Led by @agusaragon.bsky.social, with the precious assistance of #NikosSimos and @b-marion.bsky.social

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Reposted by Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis

Physiology of Cognition Lab @physiocognition.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Our lab participated at the meeting of the #BelgianSocietyofNeuroscience last Monday, which was a blast. Thank you for bringing us to Leuven this year. W/ @parboulakis.bsky.social @agusaragon.bsky.social @b-marion.bsky.social @ademertzi.bsky.social

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

❓ 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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 · 16/10/2025

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 🤔

media.tenor.com

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

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Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis @parboulakis.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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