Excessive daydreaming: A case history and discussion of mind wandering and high fantasy proneness

Exploring the nexus between childhood adversities, trauma-related fantasy and memory in maladaptive daydreaming

We conducted a qualitative study investigating traumatic daydreaming themes among individuals with maladaptive daydreaming (MD). Forty-one participants were interviewed regarding connections between their traumatic daydreams and real-life adversity. Specifically, we asked participants about 1) childhood trauma experiences, 2) trauma-related daydreaming, 3) perceived relationships between such daydreams and authentic experiences, and 4) difficulty distinguishing traumatic memories originating from daydreams versus actual events. Many participants reported past trauma and frequent traumatic daydream themes. However, participants also noted their daydreams often depicted corrected, more positive versions of experienced events. Finally, most participants stated they did not confuse daydreaming with actual experiences. This study provides new data on the complex interplay between trauma, memory, and daydreaming in MD.

When Imagination Feels Like Reality: A Case Study of False Memories and Maladaptive Daydreaming in Visual Impairment

Background

When a person experiences maladaptive daydreaming (MD), they spend a prolonged period daydreaming with a strong sense of presence. The symptoms of MD are often excessive, interfere with functioning, and are linked to distress and comorbid mental disorders. In this paper, apparent false memory is described in the context of a woman with MD and visual impairment due to a progressive eye condition. Her vivid daydreams seemed indistinguishable from actual memories. Case Report. A 35-year-old woman with a lifelong MD reported three incidents of fabricating detailed false memories of events that her family confirmed never occurred: obtaining a new job, miscarrying twins, and hospitalization for COVID-19. She experienced anxiety and shame when the stories were disproven. The assessment confirmed MD, PTSD, OCD, and other disorders. Her verbal memory was below average, especially for longer narratives. Her misattributions of daydreams as real-life memories may relate to reliance on vivid mental images over deteriorating vision and source monitoring deficits.

Conclusion

This first reported case of confabulations in an individual with MD and visual disability suggests daydreams could potentially be mistaken for actual events in some MD cases. While sensitive, more research is needed on the prevalence of false memories among individuals with MD. The default mode network, prefrontal cortex, and their connectivity may be implicated in generating vivid daydreams and misattributing them to actual episodic events. Understanding the relationship between sensory impairments, dissociation, and susceptibility to memory distortions could inform interventions to improve reality testing for some MD patients.

Maladaptive daydreaming: A shortened assessment measure and its mental health correlates in a large United States sample

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a suggested syndrome where individuals addictively engage in fanciful, narrative and emotional daydreaming for hours on end, often relying on stereotypical movements and music to facilitate the absorbed state. Many individuals suffering from MD to the point of clinically significant distress and functional impairment have advocated for its medicalization as a disorder. Maladaptive daydreamers exhibit high rates of psychopathology, but most studies were biased by self-selection. We developed a brief measure for efficient assessment of suspected MD and then administered it in a large non-selected US sample to gauge the significance of MD for public mental health.

METHODS

Two previous datasets were utilized to develop the 5-item measure, labeled the Maladaptive Daydreaming Short Form (MD-SF5). Then, a large survey was conducted using the Qualtrics panel, administering the MD-SF5 alongside several validated measures of mental health to a general sample of panelists (N = 2512, 84.6% females, age M = 39.74, SD = 18.53, Race/Ethnicity: 66.3% White, 14.7% Black, 9.3% Hispanic, and 9.7% Other).

RESULTS

The MD-SF5 showed good to excellent agreement with the existing measure. Generally, the new sample had high psychopathology rates. Suspected MD was associated with psychological distress, loneliness, psychotic experiences, heavy drinking, and suicidality. Notably, even after controlling for psychological distress, suspected maladaptive daydreamers were more than twice as likely to have recently attempted suicide (Odds Ratio = 2.44, 95% CI [1.44, 4.16], Wald = 10.86, p = .001).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

MD harbors public health significance and can be screened for with a short self-report tool. Thus, MD should be addressed by mental health practitioners.

Longitudinal Associations Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Academic Achievement in Adolescents: A Mediated Moderation Model

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was initially studied in the context of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but is now recognized as a distinct disorder. Despite the growing recognition of SCT, its impact on academic achievement among adolescents remains controversial, even when controlling for the level of ADHD. This may be due to the influence of other factors such as learning engagement and emotional distress. To address this gap, we conducted a longitudinal study with a sample of 782 Chinese senior high school students, measuring their SCT, learning engagement, and emotional distress at Grade 10 (Time1, T1) to predict their academic achievement evaluated based on final exams scores five months later (Time2, T2). Results showed that learning engagement mediated the negative relationship between SCT and later academic achievement. Additionally, individuals with high SCT showed less impact by emotional distress on learning engagement. These findings may shed light on the complex interplay between SCT, emotional distress and learning engagement in shaping academic achievement, underscoring the potential adaptive function of SCT as a coping strategy for managing emotional challenges.

Pathological personality traits of maladaptive daydreamers measured by the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 in a psychiatric sample

This study aimed to estimate the frequency of maladaptive daydreaming and to explore the pathological personality traits of probable maladaptive daydreamers. Our sample consisted of 239 psychiatric patients. After screening, 42 persons were probable maladaptive, while 197 participants prove to be normal daydreamers. Two pathological domains and three facets measured by the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 showed a moderate significant correlation with the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale. The score of nearly every domain and facet was slightly higher among probable maladaptive daydreamers. To quantify the difference between the groups, effect sizes were calculated: Significant difference was found on the domain level in Antagonism, while on the facet level in Hostility, Grandiosity, Attention Seeking, Unusual Beliefs and Experiences, Cognitive and Perceptual Dysregulation. The group of probable maladaptive daydreamers was further examined to identify potential subgroups. Cluster analysis revealed heterogeneity in the severeness and patterns of pathological personality domains. Cluster 1 showed higher mean scores on the PID domains and on the MDS compared to Cluster 2. Clusters 1 and 2 broke further down into two subclusters: Cluster 1a and Cluster 1b differed in their mean scores on the domains of Antagonism and Detachment; the mean scores of Cluster 2a were uniformly low on each domain, while the mean values of Cluster 2b were scattered in a mixed way on the domains. Our results suggest that maladaptive daydreaming might manifest with differently pathological personality profiles in the background. This aspect might worth considering in planning treatment.

Could immersive daydreaming underlie a deficit in attention? The prevalence and characteristics of maladaptive daydreaming in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

OBJECTIVE

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) entails excessive immersion and engagement in complex fantasy worlds, causing distress and impairing functioning. Maladaptive Daydreamers often report that existing diagnostic labels are unhelpful for them. Previous studies reported high rates of comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among persons with MD, raising the question of their separateness. This study explored whether MD differs essentially from ADHD by examining an ADHD sample, hypothesizing a much lower incidence of MD.

METHOD

Adults diagnosed with ADHD (N = 83) were assessed for ADHD symptoms, MD, depression, loneliness, and self-esteem. Participants who exceeded the study's cutoff score for suspected MD were invited to participate in a structured diagnostic interview for MD.

RESULTS

In accordance with the hypothesis, only 20.5% of the ADHD sample met the proposed diagnostic criteria for MD. Compared with ADHD-only participants, this subgroup presented increased depression, loneliness, and lowered self-esteem.

CONCLUSION

MD has unique clinical characteristics that are distinct from ADHD. We suggest that in some cases presenting with ADHD symptoms, an MD conceptualization may better explain the clinical picture. Future research should aim at a better differentiation of daydreaming, ADHD, and related constructs such as mind-wandering.

Maladaptive Daydreaming: Epidemiological Data on a Newly Identified Syndrome

BACKGROUND

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a recently identified psychological disorder, characterized by excessively and addictively engaging in vivid, narrative, intensely emotional fantasy activity, at times with the aid of music and/or repetitive movements, causing distress and functional impairment. Over 100,000 self-diagnosed individuals are active online and thousands of them have been researched; yet there are no studies using clinical interviews on large, systematic general (non-MD) samples, to assess the estimated prevalence of this suggested disorder, and establish norms for its main psychometric tool.

METHODS

Four independent Israeli samples (three student samples, and one sample representing the general Jewish-Israeli population; total N = 1,023) self-reported MD. In two samples, those exceeding the cutoff score for suspected MD were invited for a structured clinical interview.

RESULTS

The skewness of most items of the 16-item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16) supports the notion of MD as a binary construct rather than a normally distributed trait. In the community sample, 4.2% exceeded the cutoff for suspected MD. Rates were higher when focusing on the young adult age group or student samples (5.5-8.5%), suggesting a likely age effect. Following clinical interviews, only 60% of interviewed respondents met criteria for diagnosis, suggesting a true point-prevalence of 2.5% in the Israeli-Jewish population.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first systematic clinical evaluation of the prevalence of MD. In an Israeli sample, a point-prevalence of 2.5% was found, like several other internalizing psychiatric syndromes. This result, along with the Non-normal nature of item distribution, both support the validity of MD as a psychological disorder, which should be considered as a potential addition to future psychiatric diagnostic manuals.

Maladaptive Daydreaming and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: A confirmatory and exploratory investigation of shared mechanisms

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a newly proposed mental disorder characterized by excessive, vivid fantasy activity impairing functioning. There is a high comorbidity of MD with Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Symptoms (OCSS), yet the mechanisms responsible for this relationship are still unclear. The present study set out to explore the relationship between MD and OCSS by: (1) examining dissociation, trauma, sense of control, and mind-wandering as potential mediators; (2) exploring whether MD is more strongly related to obsessions or compulsions; and (3) identifying patterns of specific obsessions and/or compulsions common in an MD sample. A group of 510 participants with self-identified MD completed a battery of online questionnaires. Dissociation and sense of control significantly mediated the MD-OCSS association. MD was moderately related to both obsessions and compulsions but was significantly more strongly related to the former. Frequently endorsed obsessions and compulsions among MD participants included checking and repetition compulsions, intrusive obsessions, and body-related obsessions and compulsions. We conclude that dissociative mechanisms, including dissociative absorption, play a major role in the relationship between MD and OCSS and may lead to consequent checking when transitioning back to reality, altered embodiment, intrusive images, and thoughts, and an impaired sense of mental control. Clinicians working with OCSS should be aware of the possible role of MD in the development or maintenance of symptoms. Future work should develop useful interventions for this type of shared psychopathology.

Phenomenological analysis of maladaptive daydreaming associated with internet gaming addiction: a case report

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is an immersive fantasy activity that leads to distress and socio-occupational dysfunction. MD has many features suggestive of behavioural addiction, but research exploring the phenomenology of this clinical construct is limited. MD has also been purported to be a maladaptive strategy to cope with distress, but often leads to uncontrollable absorption in fantasy world, social withdrawal and neglected aspects of everyday life. In this paper, we report the case of a 16-year-old boy who developed internet gaming disorder and MD after experiencing cyberbullying from his peers. The patient engaged in vivid, fanciful imagery that lasted for hours, leading to social dysfunction and academic deterioration. Baseline assessment revealed a Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale-16 score of 65 (cut-off 50) and an Internet Gaming Test-20 score of 86 (cut-off 71). The patient was managed primarily with psychological intervention. The therapy focused on behaviour modification and cognitive restructuring. Patients in clinical setting should be questioned about MD when presenting with excessive use of technology or other forms of behavioural addictions. Further studies are necessary to determine the biopsychosocial factors of MD and its correlates. There is also a need to study treatment and management approaches for treating MD.

Different cultures, similar daydream addiction? An examination of the cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a proposed mental disorder, in which absorption in rich, narrative fantasy becomes addictive and compulsive, resulting in emotional, social, vocational, or academic dysfunction. Most studies on MD were carried out on aggregated international samples, using translated versions of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16). However, it is unknown whether the properties of MD are affected by culture. Thus, we investigated the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the MDS-16.

METHODS

We recruited both individuals self-identified as suffering from MD and non-clinical community participants from four countries: the USA, Italy, Turkey, and the UK (N = 1,081).

RESULTS

Configural invariance was shown, suggesting that the hypothesized four-factor structure of the MDS-16 (including Yearning, Impairment, Kinesthesia, and Music) holds across cultures. Metric invariance was shown for Impairment, Kinesthesia, and Music, but not for Yearning, suggesting that the psychological meaning of the latter factor may be understood differently across cultures. Scalar invariance was not found, as MD levels were higher in the USA and UK, probably due to the over-representation of English-speaking members of MD communities, who volunteered for the study.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the urge to be absorbed in daydreaming and the fantasies' comforting and addictive properties may have different meanings across countries, but the interference of MD to one's daily life and its obstruction of long-term goals may be the central defining factor of MD.

Impact of Maladaptive Daydreaming on Grade Point Average (GPA) and the Association Between Maladaptive Daydreaming and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

This study demonstrates the prevalence of the maladaptive daydreaming (MD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) among Saudi medical students. It also illustrates the association of MD with both GAD and the students' grade point average (GPA). MD was assessed by using the 14-item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS), and GAD was assessed by using both the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Our data estimate the prevalence of MD among the students to be 70%, GAD prevalence to be 80%, and 55% when using both GAD-7 and PSWQ, respectively. A statistically significant decline in the GPA was apparent among maladaptive daydreamers (MDers). A statistically significant rise in the scores of GAD-7 and PSWQ among MDers compared to non-MDers was found. To sum up, our findings demonstrate a high number of MDers and GAD sufferers among our subjects, and it appears that MD is associated with both GAD and GPA.

Away with the fairies: the psychopathology of visionary encounters in early modern Scotland

In early modern Scotland, several visionaries experienced vivid relationships with spirits. This paper analyses their experiences historically, with the aid of modern scholarship in medicine, psychology and social science. Most of the visionaries were women. Most of their spirit-guides were fairies or ghosts. There could be traumas in forming or maintaining the relationship, and visionaries often experienced spirit-guides as powerful, capricious and demanding. It is argued that some visionaries experienced psychotic conditions, including psychosomatic injuries, sleepwalking, mutism and catatonia. Further conditions related to visionary experience were not necessarily pathological, notably fantasy-proneness and hallucinations. Imaginary companions and parasocial relationships are discussed, as are normality, abnormality and coping strategies. There are concluding reflections on links between culture and biology.

Self-Reported Medication and Recreational Drug Effectiveness in Maladaptive Daydreaming

Maladaptive daydreaming is a proposed disorder characterized by excessive daydreaming that causes subjective distress and/or interferes with function. The daydreaming involves complex inner worlds, characters, and plots that are understood by the person as fantasy, and the daydreaming may occupy many hours per day. The disorder has good reliability and validity in studies using a structured interview and a self-report measure developed for it. To date, no information on the responses of maladaptive daydreamers to either recreational or prescription drugs has been available. The authors obtained survey data from 202 participants who completed the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale-16. The results indicated that this population has tried many different recreational drugs and has been prescribed many different psychotropic medications. Most of the participants reported little to no effect of drugs or medications on daydreaming, although tentative recommendations can be made in favor of prescribing antidepressants and against the use of marijuana for individuals with maladaptive daydreaming.

Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16) in an Italian Sample

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is an extensive fantasy activity that replaces human interaction and interferes with work and interpersonal functioning. In this study, we investigated the nomological network of the MD construct and examined the psychometric properties of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16) in an Italian sample. The MDS-16 is a self-report measure composed of 16 items designed to assess MD. Participants in this study were 468 individuals (333 volunteers, 56.8% female; 135 self-diagnosed maladaptive daydreamers, 78.5% female) between 18 and 56 years of age. MDS-16 scores showed good internal reliability. An exploratory factor analysis suggested a 2-factor solution (interference with life and sensory-motor retreat); this solution was consistent with theory, and all items loaded in the expected direction. MDS-16 scores were associated with global psychopathology, traumatic experiences, maladaptive personality features, alexithymia, dissociation, shame feelings, and anxious attachment styles. Furthermore, MDS-16 scores showed satisfactory incremental validity, and a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggested that a cutoff value of 51 best discriminates between cases and noncases of self-diagnosed MD. Results suggest that the scale is a suitable measure for assessing MD in Italian samples.

Affective neuroscience of self-generated thought

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.

Trapped in a Daydream: Daily Elevations in Maladaptive Daydreaming Are Associated With Daily Psychopathological Symptoms

Background: Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) characterizes individuals who engage in vivid, fanciful daydreaming for hours on end, neglecting real-life relationships and responsibilities, resulting in clinical distress and functional impairment. Sufferers have embraced the term MD in cyber-communities devoted to this problem because it seemed to uniquely fit their experience and since existing diagnostic labels and their therapies seemed inadequate. However, scientific research in the field has been scarce, relying on cross-sectional or case study designs. Existing knowledge on MD suggests the involvement of dissociative and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, as well as positive reinforcement comparable to processes in addiction disorders. The present study aimed to rigorously explore factors that accompany MD employing a longitudinal daily-diary design, hypothesizing that temporal increases in MD will associate concurrently with, and will temporally precede, other symptoms and emotional changes. In addition, we aimed to explore which symptoms may act as precursors to increases in MD, in order to identify possible mechanisms bringing about daydreaming in these individuals. Methods: In a sample of 77 self-diagnosed individuals with MD we assessed relevant daily symptoms for 14 days, including MD, depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and dissociation, as well as positive and negative emotion. Results: Increases in MD were strongly related to concurrent increases in all other symptoms and negative emotion, and to decreased positive emotion. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms, dissociation, and negative emotion also temporally followed MD. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms were the only consistent temporal antecedent of MD. Conclusions: MD and obsessive-compulsive symptoms coincided in what seems to be a vicious cycle; understanding possible shared mechanisms between these symptoms may inform our understanding of the etiology of MD. For example, Serotonin levels may possibly be involved in the development or maintenance of this condition. The findings may also provide clues as to potentially beneficial interventions for treating MD. For example, perhaps utilizing response prevention techniques may be useful for curbing or intercepting unwanted daydreaming. Future studies on MD should address its compulsory nature.

Parallel lives: A phenomenological study of the lived experience of maladaptive daydreaming

This qualitative study describes the lived experience of maladaptive daydreaming (MD), an excessive form of unwanted daydreaming that produces a rewarding experience based on a created fantasy of a parallel reality associated with a profound sense of presence. A total of 21 in-depth interviews with persons who self-identified as struggling with MD were analyzed utilizing a phenomenological approach. Interviewees described how their natural capacity for vivid daydreaming had developed into a time-consuming habit that resulted in serious dysfunction. The phenomenology of MD was typified by complex fantasized mental scenarios that were often laced with emotionally compensatory themes involving competency, social recognition, and support. MD could be activated if several requirements were met. Because social interaction seems to be incompatible with this absorbing mental activity, solitude was necessary. In addition, kinesthetic activity and/or exposure to evocative music also appeared to be essential features. Besides delivering a firsthand description of key characteristics of MD, the study also indicates that MD is associated with dysfunctionality for which participants expressed a substantial need for help.

Spontaneous Thought and Vulnerability to Mood Disorders: The Dark Side of the Wandering Mind

There is increasing interest in spontaneous thought, namely task-unrelated or rest-related mental activity. Spontaneous thought is an umbrella term for processes like mindwandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, and daydreaming, with evidence elucidating adaptive and maladaptive consequences. In this theoretical framework, we propose that, apart from its positive functions, spontaneous thought is a precursor for cognitive vulnerability in individuals who are at-risk for mood disorders. Importantly, spontaneous thought mostly focuses on unattained goals and evaluates the discrepancy between current and desired status (Klinger, 1971, 2013a). In individuals who stably (i.e., trait negative affectivity) or transitorily (i.e., stress) experience negative emotions in reaction to goal-discrepancy, spontaneous thought fosters major cognitive vulnerabilities (e.g., rumination, hopelessness, low self-esteem, and cognitive reactivity) which, in turn, enhance depression. Furthermore, we also highlight preliminary links between spontaneous thought and bipolar disorder. The evidence for this framework is reviewed and we discuss theoretical and clinical implications of our proposal.

Childhood Antecedents and Maintaining Factors in Maladaptive Daydreaming

This study explored the fantasy activity of 16 individuals who were seeking online peer-support and advice for maladaptive daydreaming (MD). MD is an under-researched mental activity described as persistent vivid fantasy activity that replaces human interaction and/or interferes with important areas of functioning. We employed a grounded theory methodology that yielded seven common themes presented as a sequential descriptive narrative about the nature, precursors, and consequences of MD. The presented "storyline" included the following themes: (1) daydreaming as an innate talent for vivid fantasy; (2) daydreaming and social isolation-a two-way street; (3) the role of trauma in the development of MD; (4) the rewards of daydreaming; (5) the insatiable yearning for daydreaming; (6) shame and concealment; (7) unsuccessful treatment attempts. A main conclusion of our study is that there is an urgent need for early identification of MD and its correct diagnoses in adulthood.

Maladaptive daydreaming: Evidence for an under-researched mental health disorder

This study explores the recently described phenomenon of Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) and attempts to enhance the understanding of its features. It documents the experiences of 340 self-identified maladaptive daydreamers who spend excessive amounts of time engaged in mental fantasy worlds, in comparison to 107 controls. Our sample included a total of 447 individuals, aged 13-78, from 45 countries who responded to online announcements. Participants answered quantitative and qualitative questions about their daydreaming habits and completed seven questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms. Findings demonstrated that MD differs significantly from normative daydreaming in terms of quantity, content, experience, controllability, distress, and interference with life functioning. Results also demonstrated that Maladaptive Daydreamers endorsed significantly higher rates of attention deficit, obsessive compulsive and dissociation symptoms than controls. In sum, findings suggested that MD represents an under-acknowledged clinical phenomenon that causes distress, hinders life functioning and requires more scientific and clinical attention.

Development and validation of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS)

This study describes the development of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS), a 14-item self-report instrument designed to gauge abnormal fantasizing. Our sample consisted of 447 English-speaking individuals from 45 different countries. A 3-correlated-factors model best presented the underlying dimensions Yearning, Kinesthesia and Impairment, capturing related rewarding experiences as well as psychological impairment of maladaptive daydreaming. MDS scores were associated with obsessive-compulsive behavior and thoughts, dissociative absorption, attention deficit, and high sense of presence during daydreaming, but less with psychotic symptoms. The MDS and its subscale demonstrated good validity, sound internal consistency and temporal stability and discriminated well between self-identified individuals with and without maladaptive daydreaming. Considering the instrument's high sensitivity and specificity levels, it seems an excellent measure for future investigation of MD that will, hopefully, shed light on the etiology and psycho-biological mechanisms involved in this mental condition, as well as on the development of effective MD treatment methods.

Intense imagery movements: a common and distinct paediatric subgroup of motor stereotypies

AIM

The aim of this article is to describe a subgroup of children who presented with stereotyped movements in the context of episodes of intense imagery. This is of relevance to current discussions regarding the clinical usefulness of diagnosing motor stereotypies during development.

METHOD

The sample consisted of 10 children (nine males, one female; mean age 8y 6mo [SD 2y 5mo], range 6-15y). Referrals were from acute paediatricians, neurologists, and tertiary epilepsy services. Children were assessed by multidisciplinary teams with expertise in paediatric movement disorders.

RESULTS

Stereotypies presented as paroxysmal complex movements involving upper and lower limbs. Imagery themes typically included computer games (60%), cartoons/films (40%), and fantasy scenes (30%). Comorbid developmental difficulties were reported for 80% of children. Brain imaging and electrophysiological investigations had been conducted for 50% of the children before referral to the clinic.

INTERPRETATION

The descriptive term 'intense imagery movements' (IIM) was applied if (after interview) the children reported engaging in acts of imagery while performing stereotyped movements. We believe these children may form a common and discrete stereotypy subgroup, with the concept of IIM being clinically useful to ensure the accurate diagnosis and clinical management of this paediatric movement disorder.

When the mind wanders: age-related differences between young and older adults

Interest in mind wandering (MW) has grown in recent years, but few studies have assessed this phenomenon in older adults. The aim of this study was to assess age-related differences between young, young-old and old-old adults in MW using two versions of the sustained attention to response task (SART), one perceptual and one semantic. Different indicators were examined (i.e., reported MW episodes and behavioral indices of MW such as response time latency and variability, incorrect response and omission errors). The relationship between MW, certain basic mechanisms of cognition (working memory, inhibition and processing speed), cognitive failures and intrusive thoughts in everyday life was also explored. Findings in both versions of the SART indicated that older adults reported a lower frequency of MW episodes than young adults, but some of the behavioral indices of MW (response time variability, incorrect response and omission errors) were higher in old-old adults. This seems to suggest that MW becomes less frequent with aging, but more pervasive and detrimental to performance. Our results also indicated that the role of age and cognitive mechanisms in explaining MW depends on the demands of the SART task considered.

The myth of cognitive agency: subpersonal thinking as a cyclically recurring loss of mental autonomy

This metatheoretical paper investigates mind wandering from the perspective of philosophy of mind. It has two central claims. The first is that, on a conceptual level, mind wandering can be fruitfully described as a specific form of mental autonomy loss. The second is that, given empirical constraints, most of what we call “conscious thought” is better analyzed as a subpersonal process that more often than not lacks crucial properties traditionally taken to be the hallmark of personal-level cognition - such as mental agency, explicit, consciously experienced goal-directedness, or availability for veto control. I claim that for roughly two thirds of our conscious life-time we do not possess mental autonomy (M-autonomy) in this sense. Empirical data from research on mind wandering and nocturnal dreaming clearly show that phenomenally represented cognitive processing is mostly an automatic, non-agentive process and that personal-level cognition is an exception rather than the rule. This raises an interesting new version of the mind-body problem: How is subpersonal cognition causally related to personal-level thought? More fine-grained phenomenological descriptions for what we called “conscious thought” in the past are needed, as well as a functional decomposition of umbrella terms like “mind wandering” into different target phenomena and a better understanding of the frequent dynamic transitions between spontaneous, task-unrelated thought and meta-awareness. In an attempt to lay some very first conceptual foundations for the now burgeoning field of research on mind wandering, the third section proposes two new criteria for individuating single episodes of mind-wandering, namely, the “self-representational blink” (SRB) and a sudden shift in the phenomenological “unit of identification” (UI). I close by specifying a list of potentially innovative research goals that could serve to establish a stronger connection between mind wandering research and philosophy of mind.

The neurocognitive consequences of the wandering mind: a mechanistic account of sensory-motor decoupling

A unique human characteristic is our ability to mind wander – a state in which we are free to engage in thoughts that are not directly tied to sensations and perceptions from our immediate physical environment. From a neurocognitive perspective, it has been proposed that during mind wandering, our executive resources are decoupled from the external environment and directed to these internal thoughts. In this review, we examine an underappreciated aspect of this phenomenon – attenuation of sensory-motor processing – from two perspectives. First, we describe the range of widespread sensory, cognitive and motor processes attenuated during mind wandering states, and how this impacts our neurocognitive processing of external events. We then consider sensory-motor attenuation in a class of clinical neurocognitive disorders that have ties to pathological patterns of decoupling, reviews suggesting that mind wandering and these clinical states may share a common mechanism of sensory-motor attenuation. Taken together, these observations suggest the sensory-motor consequences of decoupled thinking are integral to normal and pathological neurocognitive states.

Driver of discontent or escape vehicle: the affective consequences of mindwandering

An emerging body of evidence suggests that our penchant for entertaining thoughts that are unrelated to ongoing activities might be a detriment to our emotional wellbeing. In light of this evidence, researchers have posited that mindwandering is a cause rather than a manifestation of discontent. We review the evidence in support of this viewpoint. We then consider this evidence in a broader context-with regards to mindwandering's antecedents, respecting the observation that people frequently find pleasure in their off-task moments, and in light of the lay beliefs people hold about its causes. We report data from two studies that speak to the potential challenges of establishing a definitive causal link between mindwandering and wellbeing. First, to advance the idea that mindwandering can convey affective benefits, in spite of negative feelings about mental disengagement, we examined cortical responses in a unique individual who presents with a long history of excessive-but enjoyable-task-irrelevant thinking. Second, to explore the idea that lay beliefs about mindwandering may substantially color the affective responses people have to a mindwandering episode, we surveyed people's beliefs about mindwandering's antecedents and related them to the affective reactions people anticipated to off-task moments. Our hope is to provide a nuanced evaluation of the available evidence for the assertion that mindwandering causes unhappiness, and to provide a clear direction forward to better evaluate this possibility.

What Mind Wandering Reveals About Executive-Control Abilities and Failures

People’s minds sometimes wander from ongoing activities. Although these experiences can be pleasant and useful, they are often unintentional and precipitate mistakes. In this article, we adopt an individual-differences perspective in considering unwanted mind wandering as an indicator of both momentary failures of and enduring deficiencies in executive-control functions. We describe research that associates normal variation in working memory capacity (WMC)—a cognitive ability that broadly predicts intellectual capabilities and accomplishments—with off-task thinking. In laboratory and daily-life assessments, people with lower WMC mind wander more frequently than do those with higher WMC, at least during demanding tasks. Moreover, the error-proneness of lower-WMC subjects seems to arise partly from their vulnerability to mind wandering. Executive control over one’s thoughts therefore seems to contribute to the effective regulation of behavior.

How daydreaming relates to life satisfaction, loneliness, and social support: the importance of gender and daydream content

Daydreaming appears to have a complex relationship with life satisfaction and happiness. Here we demonstrate that the facets of daydreaming that predict life satisfaction differ between men and women (Study 1; N=421), that the content of daydreams tends to be social others (Study 2; N=17,556), and that who we daydream about influences the relation between daydreaming and happiness variables like life satisfaction, loneliness, and perceived social support (Study 3; N=361). Specifically, daydreaming about people not close to us predicts more loneliness and less perceived social support, whereas daydreaming about close others predicts greater life satisfaction. Importantly, these patterns hold even when actual social network depth and breadth are statistically controlled, although these associations tend to be small in magnitude. Individual differences and the content of daydreams are thus important to consider when examining how happiness relates to spontaneous thoughts.

Compulsive fantasy: proposed evidence of an under-reported syndrome through a systematic study of 90 self-identified non-normative fantasizers

The experiences of 90 individuals who self-identify as "excessive" or "maladaptive" fantasizers are summarized in this report. Our sample consisted of 75 female and 15 male participants, ranging in age from 18 to 63 who responded to online announcements. Participants completed a 14-question emailed survey requesting descriptions of their fantasy habits and causes of potential distress regarding fantasy. Results demonstrated that participants shared a number of remarkably specific behaviors and concerns regarding their engagement in extensive periods of highly-structured, immersive imaginative experiences, including the use of kinesthetic activity which accompanies the fantasies of 79% of participants. Participants reported distress stemming from three factors: difficulty in controlling the need or desire to engage in fantasizing; concern that the quantity of fantasizing interfered with actual relationships and endeavors; and intense shame and exhaustive efforts to keep this behavior hidden from others. It is hoped that this report will encourage interest in this elusive syndrome.