A new study has found that individuals with major depressive disorder report mind wandering over twice as often as healthy adults. These individuals saw their mind wandering as more negative. Mind wandering was more frequent in depressed individuals who reported experiencing more negative and less positive moods. The research was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Mind wandering is the spontaneous shift of attention away from a current task or external environment to internal thoughts or daydreams. It typically occurs when people are engaged in routine or low-demand activities. During mind wandering, people think about their past, future, or unrelated topics. Mind wandering can foster creativity and problem-solving, but frequent or excessive mind wandering has been linked to negative outcomes, including rumination and poor emotional regulation.
In individuals with depression, mind wandering tends to focus on negative thoughts, regrets, or worries, contributing to a persistently low mood and feelings of hopelessness. Studies suggest that people with depression experience more frequent and uncontrollable mind wandering, which can exacerbate symptoms. This tendency to ruminate increases cognitive load and interferes with concentration and productivity.
Study author Matthew S. Welhaf and his colleagues aimed to better understand the frequency of mind wandering in individuals with major depressive disorder in everyday life compared to healthy individuals. They also aimed to explore the content of mind wandering. Unlike most previous studies that relied on formal scales and assessments, this study applied an experience sampling design, having participants report their experiences several times per day.
The authors hypothesized that individuals with major depressive disorder would mind-wander more frequently, focusing more on the past. Additionally, they expected the frequency of mind wandering to be associated with negative moods.
Study participants included 106 adults, all native English speakers and up to 40 years old. Fifty-three were healthy controls with no history of mental health disorders, and the other 53 had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants with major depressive disorder were slightly older, with an average age of 28, compared to 25 years among the healthy participants. Approximately 70% of participants in both groups were women.
The study authors provided participants with a handheld electronic device with the Experience Sampling Program 4.0 installed. Over 7–8 days, participants were randomly prompted eight times a day (between 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.) to report on their current experiences, amounting to a maximum of 56 prompts throughout the period. On average, participants completed around 43–44 prompts, with similar numbers in both groups.
The prompts required participants to report whether they were mind wandering at the time of the prompt (“At the time of the beep, my mind had wandered to something other than what I was doing”), their positive and negative emotions (“I feel happy/excited/alert/active right now” and “I feel sad/anxious/angry/frustrated/ashamed/disgusted/guilty right now”), and to complete a shortened assessment of rumination (based on the Ruminative Response Scale).
Results showed that participants with major depressive disorder reported mind wandering over twice as often as healthy controls. These individuals reported mind wandering in 37% of prompts, compared to only 17% for healthy controls. Differences in the frequency of mind wandering among individuals with major depressive disorder were much larger than among healthy controls.
However, there was no difference between the groups in the temporal focus of their mind wandering—healthy participants thought about the past as often as depressed individuals during these experiences.
Mind wandering among individuals with major depressive disorder also had a negative tone much more frequently. These individuals reported that their mind wandering had a negative valence (negative emotional tone) in 42% of cases, compared to only 10% among healthy participants. Depressed individuals mind wandered more often when experiencing a higher negative mood and a lower positive mood, but this association between mood and mind wandering was absent in healthy individuals.
Current mind wandering predicted future positive mood levels in depressed individuals, but not in healthy participants. In contrast, current mood, whether negative or positive, did not predict future mind wandering. This may indicate that mind wandering affects mood, particularly positive mood, rather than vice versa.
“Individuals with MDD [major depressive disorder] frequently report engaging in mind wandering in everyday life, and this appears to be coupled with affect. Mind wandering may have maladaptive effects in MDD and could serve as a target for intervention,” study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the mind wandering experiences in depression. However, the study focused only on some aspects of mind wanders and task-unrelated thoughts. They did not ask how freely-moving participants’ thoughts were at the time. Therefore, it remains unknown whether these mind wanderings are unintentional or not. Additionally, study participants were all relatively young adults. Results on older groups might not be identical.
The paper, “Mind-wandering in daily life in depressed individuals: An experience sampling study,” was authored by Matthew S. Welhaf, Jutta Mata, Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, Ian H. Gotlib, and Renee J. Thompson.
