Spontaneous thought and microstate activity modulation by social imitation
Miralena I. Tomescu,
Claudiu C. Papasteri,
Alexandra Sofonea,
Romina Boldasu,
Valeria Kebets,
Constantin A.D. Pistol,
Catalina Poalelungi,
Vlad Benescu,
Ioana R. Podina,
Catalin I. Nedelcea,
Alexandru I. Berceanu,
Ioana Carcea
Affiliations
Miralena I. Tomescu
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Educational Sciences, University ''Stefan cel Mare'' of Suceava, Suceava, Romania
Claudiu C. Papasteri
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Alexandra Sofonea
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Romina Boldasu
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Valeria Kebets
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Constantin A.D. Pistol
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Catalina Poalelungi
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Vlad Benescu
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Ioana R. Podina
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Catalin I. Nedelcea
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Alexandru I. Berceanu
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Ioana Carcea
CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, Rutgers Brain Health Institute, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA; Corresponding author at: CINETic Center, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.
The human mind wanders spontaneously and frequently, revisiting the past and imagining the future of self and of others. External and internal factors can influence wandering spontaneous thoughts, whose content predicts subsequent emotional states. We propose that social imitation, an action that increases well-being and closeness by poorly understood mechanisms, impacts behavioural states in part by modulating post-imitation mind-wandering. In 43 young subjects, we find that imitating the arm movements of an actor alters the dynamics and the content of subsequent resting-state spontaneous thoughts. Imitation-sensitive features of spontaneous thoughts correlate with behavioural states and personality traits. EEG microstate analysis reveals that global patterns of correlated neuronal activity predict imitation-induced changes in spontaneous thoughts. Exploratory analyses indicate a possible modulatory effect of social imitation via the endogenous release of oxytocin. Thus, social imitation can induce selective modulations of ongoing activity in specific neural networks to change spontaneous thought patterns as a function of personality traits, and to ultimately orchestrate behavioural states.
