Experience sampling reveals the role that covert goal states play in task-relevant behavior.
Description
Anonymized Multidimensional Experience Sampling data and Gradient coordinates used in the analysis reported in Mckeown et al. (2023), "Experience sampling reveals the role that covert goal states play in task-relevant behavior". Summary: Cognitive neuroscience has gained insight into covert states using experience sampling. Traditionally, this approach has focused on off-task states. However, task-relevant states are also maintained via covert processes. Our study examined whether experience sampling can also provide insights into covert goal-relevant states that support task performance. To address this question, we developed a neural state space, using dimensions of brain function variation, that allows neural correlates of overt and covert states to be examined in a common analytic space. We use this to describe brain activity during task performance, its relation to covert states identified via experience sampling, and links between individual variation in overt and covert states and task performance. Our study established deliberate task focus was linked to faster target detection, and brain states underlying this experience—and target detection—were associated with activity patterns emphasizing the fronto-parietal network. In contrast, brain states underlying off-task experiences—and vigilance periods—were linked to activity patterns emphasizing the default mode network. Our study shows experience sampling can not only describe covert states that are unrelated to the task at hand, but can also be used to highlight the role fronto-parietal regions play in the maintenance of covert task-relevant states. 'n57_scanner_mdes_PCA_spearman_gradients_demographics_rt_movement_mendeley_anon.csv' contains all anonymized experience-sampling data, PCA scores, state space coordinates, demographics, and movement data for the 57 participants reported in the main analyses. 'n57_scanner_mdes_PCA_yeoNetworks_demographics_rt_movement_mendeley_anon.csv' contains all anonymized experience-sampling data, PCA scores, Yeo-7 network averages, demographics, and movement data for the same 57 participants. 'n46_lab_and_scanner_PCA_mendeley_anon.csv' contains all anonymized lab and scanner PCA scores for the 46 participants that participated in both behavioral and scanner sessions (supplementary analysis). Note: 3 scanner participants in this dataset were excluded from fMRI analyses (anon IDs: 58, 59, 60). Version 2 data includes coordinates for dimensions 1-5, calculated via Spearman rank correlation, as well as the network averages for each of the Yeo-7 networks.