• Blinding is compromised for transcranial direct current stimulation at 1 mA for 20 min in young healthy adults 

      Turi, Zsolt; Csifcsak, Gabor; Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Aslaksen, Per M; Antal, Andrea; Paulus, Walter; Groot, Josephine; Hawkins, Guy E.; Opitz, Alexander; Thielscher, Axel; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2019-03-19)
      Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non‐invasive brain stimulation method that is frequently used to study cortical excitability changes and their impact on cognitive functions in humans. While most stimulators are capable of operating in double‐blind mode, the amount of discomfort experienced during tDCS may break blinding. Therefore, specifically designed sham stimulation protocols ...
    • Commentary: Transcranial stimulation of the frontal lobes increases propensity of mind-wandering without changing meta-awareness 

      Csifcsák, Gábor; Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Aslaksen, Per M; Turi, Zsolt; Antal, Andrea; Groot, Josephine; Hawkins, Guy E.; Forstmann, Birte U.; Opitz, Alexander; Thielscher, Axel; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2019-02-05)
      A Commentary on <p> <p>Transcranial stimulation of the frontal lobes increases propensity of mind-wandering without changing meta-awareness<p> <p>by Axelrod, V., Zhu, X., & Qui, J. (2018). <i>Scientific Reports</i>, 8:15975. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34098-z
    • Data from ‘Placebo Enhances Reward Learning in Healthy Individuals’ 

      Turi, Zsolt; Antal, Andrea; Paulus, Walter; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-04-20)
      This dataset contains three repeated measures of a standard reward-based reinforcement-learning task from 29 healthy male individuals who participated in three experimental sessions exploring cognitive placebo effects on reward learning. The dataset includes behavioural data (accuracy, reaction times) during learning and transfer, estimates of model-free computational analysis, self-reported arousal ...
    • The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on the interplay between executive control, behavioral variability and mind wandering: A registered report 

      Alexandersen, Andreas; Mittner, Matthias; Csifcsak, Gabor; Groot, Josephine Maria (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2022-06-11)
      Mind wandering (MW) is a mental phenomenon humans experience daily. Yet, we lack a complete understanding of the neural basis of this pervasive mental state. Over the past decade there has been an increase in publications using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the propensity to mind wander, but findings are diverse, and a satisfactory conclusion is missing. Recently, Boayue ...
    • Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation for treating depression: A modeling study 

      Csifcsak, Gabor; Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Puonti, Oula; Thielscher, Axel; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-02-28)
      <p><i>Background</i>: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) has been widely used to improve symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the effects of different stimulation protocols in the entire frontal lobe have not been investigated in a large sample including patient data.</p> <p><i>Methods</i>: We used 38 head ...
    • Evidence for Cognitive Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Healthy Individuals 

      Turi, Z; Bjørkedal, Espen; Gunkel, Luisa; Antal, Andrea; Paulus, Walter; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-11-28)
      Inactive interventions can have significant effects on cognitive performance. Understanding the generation of these cognitive placebo/nocebo effects is crucial for evaluating the cognitive impacts of interventional methods, such as non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS). We report both cognitive placebo and nocebo effects on reward-based learning performance induced using an active sham NIBS protocol, ...
    • Head models of healthy and depressed adults for simulating the electric fields of non-invasive electric brain stimulation [version 2; referees: 2 approved] 

      Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Csifcsak, Gabor; Puonti, Oula; Thielscher, Axel; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-06-06)
      During the past decade, it became clear that the electric field elicited by non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are substantially influenced by variations in individual head and brain anatomy. In addition to structural variations in the healthy, several psychiatric disorders are characterized ...
    • High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Delayed Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients: A Pilot Study Using Computational Modeling to Optimize Electrode Position 

      Rasmussen, Ingrid Daae; Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Mittner, Matthias; Bystad, Martin Kragnes; Grønli, Ole Kristian; Vangberg, Torgil Riise; Csifcsak, Gabor; Aslaksen, Per M. (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-09-14)
      Background: The optimal stimulation parameters when using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve memory performance in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are lacking. In healthy individuals, inter-individual differences in brain anatomy significantly influence current distribution during tDCS, an effect that might be aggravated by variations in cortical atrophy in AD ...
    • Increasing propensity to mind‐wander by transcranial direct current stimulation? A registered report 

      Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Csifcsak, Gabor; Aslaksen, Per M; Turi, Zsolt; Antal, Andrea; Groot, Josephine Maria; Hawkins, Guy E.; Forstmann, Birte U.; Opitz, Alexander; Thielscher, Axel; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel, 2019-01-24)
      Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed to be able to modulate different cognitive functions. However, recent meta‐analyses conclude that its efficacy is still in question. Recently, an increase in subjects’ propensity to mind‐wander has been reported as a consequence of anodal stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Axelrod et al., Proceedings of the National ...
    • Intermittent Absence of Control during Reinforcement Learning Interferes with Pavlovian Bias in Action Selection 

      Csifcsak, Gabor; Melsæter, Eirik; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-03-02)
      The ability to control the occurrence of rewarding and punishing events is crucial for our well-being. Two ways to optimize performance are to follow heuristics like Pavlovian biases to approach reward and avoid loss or to rely more on slowly accumulated stimulus–action associations. Although reduced control over outcomes has been linked to suboptimal decision-making in clinical conditions associated ...
    • The interplay between executive control, behavioral variability and mind wandering: Insights from a high-definition transcranial direct-current stimulation study 

      Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Csifcsak, Gabor; Kreis, Isabel Viola; Schmidt, Carole; Finn, Iselin Caroline; Vollsund, Anna Elfrida Hovde; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-11-21)
      While the involvement of executive processes in mind wandering is largely undebated, their exact relationship is subject to an ongoing debate and rarely studied dynamically within‐subject. Several brain‐stimulation studies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have attempted to modulate mind‐wandering propensity by stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) which is ...
    • Linking brain networks and behavioral variability to different types of mind-wandering 

      Csifcsak, Gabor; Mittner, Matthias (Others; Andre, 2017-07-13)
    • Mind-wandering: mechanistic insights from lesion, tDCS, and iEEG 

      Kam, Julia W.Y.; Mittner, Matthias; Knight, Robert T (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2022-01-24)
      Cognitive neuroscience has witnessed a surge of interest in investigating the neural correlates of the mind when it drifts away from an ongoing task and the external environment. To that end, functional neuroimaging research has consistently implicated the default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal control network (FPCN) in mind-wandering. Yet, it remains unknown which subregions within these ...
    • Modeling distracted performance 

      Hawkins, Guy E.; Mittner, Matthias; Forstmann, Birte U.; Heathcote, Andrew (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2019-05-23)
      The sustained attention to response task (SART) has been the primary method of studying the phenomenon of mind wandering. We develop and experimentally test the first integrated cognitive process model that quantitatively explains all stationary features of behavioral performance in the SART. The model assumes that performance is generated by a competitive race between a stimulus-related decision ...
    • A Neural Model of Mind Wandering 

      Mittner, Matthias; Hawkins, Guy E.; Boekel, Wouter; Forstmann, Birte U. (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2016-06-25)
      The role of the default-mode network (DMN) in the emergence of mind wandering and task-unrelated thought has been studied extensively. In parallel work, mind wandering has been associated with neuromodulation via the locus coeruleus (LC) norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. Here we propose a neural model that links the two systems in an integrative framework. The model attempts to explain how dynamic ...
    • On the efficiency of neurally-informed cognitive models to identify latent cognitive states 

      Hawkins, Guy; Mittner, Matthias; Forstmann, Birte U; Heathcote, A (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2016-07-25)
      Psychological theory is advanced through empirical tests of predictions derived from quantitative cognitive models. As cognitive models are developed and extended, they tend to increase in complexity–leading to more precise predictions–which places concomitant demands on the behavioral data used to discriminate between candidate theories. To aid discrimination between cognitive models and, more ...
    • Overestimation of volatility in schizophrenia and autism? A comparative study using a probabilistic reasoning task 

      Kreis, Isabel Viola; Biegler, Robert; Tjelmeland, Håkon; Mittner, Matthias; Reitan, Solveig Merete Klæbo; Pfuhl, Gerit (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-01-07)
      <i>Background and objectives</i> - A plethora of studies has investigated and compared social cognition in autism and schizophrenia ever since both conditions were first described in conjunction more than a century ago. Recent computational theories have proposed similar mechanistic explanations for various symptoms beyond social cognition. They are grounded in the idea of a general misestimation ...
    • Placebo Intervention Enhances Reward Learning in Healthy Individuals 

      Turi, Z; Mittner, Matthias; Paulus, W; Antal, A (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2017-01-23)
      According to the placebo-reward hypothesis, placebo is a reward-anticipation process that increases midbrain dopamine (DA) levels. Reward-based learning processes, such as reinforcement learning, involves a large part of the DA-ergic network that is also activated by the placebo intervention. Given the neurochemical overlap between placebo and reward learning, we investigated whether verbal ...
    • Predictors of Response to Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy With High-Intensity Face-to-Face Therapist Guidance for Depression: A Bayesian Analysis 

      Høifødt, Ragnhild Sørensen; Mittner, Matthias; Lillevoll, Kjersti; Kvam Katla, Susanne; Kolstrup, nils; Eisemann, Martin; Friborg, Oddgeir; Waterloo, Knut (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2015-02-06)
      Background: Several studies have demonstrated the effect of guided Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) for depression. However, ICBT is not suitable for all depressed patients and there is a considerable level of nonresponse. Research on predictors and moderators of outcome in ICBT is inconclusive. Objective: This paper explored predictors of response to an intervention combining the ...
    • Probing the neural signature of mind wandering with simultaneous fMRI-EEG and pupillometry 

      Groot, Josephine Maria; Boayue, Nya Mehnwolo; Csifcsak, Gabor; Boekel, Wouter; Huster, Rene; Forstmann, Birte U; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-10-01)
      Mind wandering reflects the shift in attentional focus from task-related cognition driven by external stimuli toward self-generated and internally-oriented thought processes. Although such task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) are pervasive and detrimental to task performance, their underlying neural mechanisms are only modestly understood. To investigate TUTs with high spatial and temporal precision, we ...