The stability of thought: using experience sampling and brain imaging to determine the contextually bound nature of human cognition

Human behavior is highly flexible, allowing efficient performance across a wide range of task contexts. A distributed set of frontal and parietal regions, commonly termed the multiple-demand network (MDN), is consistently engaged during diverse cognitively demanding tasks and is thought to support this flexibility. However, it remains unclear how patterns of MDN engagement relate to the qualitative features of ongoing cognition experienced during task performance. To address this issue, we examined the reliability of self-reported experiential features sampled during performance of a broad range of tasks. Across tasks, we found little evidence that particular patterns of thought were intrinsically more reliable than others, nor that individual tasks were associated with stable, characteristic thought profiles. Instead, the reliability of specific experiential features varied systematically across task contexts, with the same patterns showing high stability in some tasks and low stability in others. We next asked whether stable patterns of thought were associated with distinct neural signatures. We found that patterns of brain activity resembling the MDN tended to be present for tasks in which deliberate task focus was high, and when distraction was lower, adding to an emerging body of research suggesting that coordinated activity within frontal and parietal regions helps to establish a stable goal-focused mode of thoughts and actions.