Mind wandering constitutes a major part of everyday experience and is inherently related to how we feel and identify ourselves. Thus, probing the character and content of thoughts and feelings experienced during mind-wandering episodes could lead to a better understanding of the human mind in health and disease. How mind wandering and spontaneous thought processes are affected in disorders such as autism is poorly understood. Here, we used the eyes-closed rest condition to stimulate mind wandering and quantified the subjective experiences using the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire—which quantifies subjective psychological states of resting-state cognition across 10 domains—in 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 controls. We observed an atypical pattern of both thoughts and feelings in the autism spectrum disorder cohort, specifically in the domains of Theory of Mind, Comfort, and Discontinuity of Mind. We propose that the use of the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire as a standardized cognitive instrument could advance our understanding of thoughts and feelings in autism spectrum disorder as well as in a wide variety of other brain disorders and how these may change due to therapeutic interventions.

Lay abstract

Everyone knows the feeling of letting one’s mind wander freely in a quiet moment. The thoughts and feelings experienced in those moments have been shown to influence our well-being—and vice versa. In this study, we looked at which thoughts and feelings are being experienced by adults with autism spectrum disorder and compared them to adults without autism spectrum disorder. In total, 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 adults without autism spectrum disorder were asked to rest for 5 min with their eyes closed and let their mind wander. Directly after, they filled in the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire, which probes what participants were feeling and thinking during the period of rest. We found that adults with autism spectrum disorder tend to think less about others, felt less comfortable, and had more disrupted thoughts during the rest compared to adults without autism spectrum disorder. Interestingly, autism spectrum disorder participants reporting lower levels of comfort during the rest also reported more autism spectrum disorder symptoms, specifically in social behaviors and skills, attention switching, and imagination. We propose to use the eyes-closed rest condition in combination with the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire more widely to shed light on aberrant thoughts and feelings in brain disorders and to study the effect of therapeutic interventions.

中文翻译：

---

患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人在休息时表现出非典型的思维和感觉模式

走神是日常体验的重要组成部分，与我们的感受和自我认同有着内在的联系。因此，探索在走神期间所经历的思想和感受的特征和内容可以更好地了解人类在健康和疾病中的心理。人们对自闭症等疾病中的走神和自发思维过程如何受到影响知之甚少。在这里，我们使用闭眼休息条件来刺激走神，并使用阿姆斯特丹静息状态问卷量化了 88 名患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人和 90控件。我们在自闭症谱系障碍队列中观察到了一种非典型的思想和感觉模式，特别是在心智理论、舒适度和心智不连续性领域。我们建议将阿姆斯特丹静息状态问卷用作标准化的认知工具，可以增进我们对自闭症谱系障碍以及各种其他脑部疾病的想法和感受的理解，以及这些可能如何因治疗干预而改变。

摘要

每个人都知道在安静的时刻让自己的思绪自由游荡的感觉。那些时刻所经历的想法和感受已被证明会影响我们的幸福——反之亦然。在这项研究中，我们研究了患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人正在经历哪些想法和感受，并将它们与没有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人进行比较。总共有 88 名患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人和 90 名没有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人被要求闭上眼睛休息 5 分钟，让他们的思绪飘荡。紧接着，他们填写了阿姆斯特丹休息状态问卷，调查参与者在休息期间的感受和想法。我们发现患有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人往往较少考虑他人，感觉不太舒服，与没有自闭症谱系障碍的成年人相比，在休息期间的想法更加混乱。有趣的是，在休息期间报告舒适度较低的自闭症谱系障碍参与者也报告了更多的自闭症谱系障碍症状，特别是在社交行为和技能、注意力转换和想象力方面。我们建议将闭眼休息条件与阿姆斯特丹休息状态问卷更广泛地结合使用，以阐明脑部疾病中的异常想法和感觉，并研究治疗干预的效果。注意力转换和想象力。我们建议更广泛地将闭眼休息条件与阿姆斯特丹休息状态问卷结合使用，以阐明脑部疾病中的异常想法和感觉，并研究治疗干预的效果。注意力转换和想象力。我们建议将闭眼休息条件与阿姆斯特丹休息状态问卷更广泛地结合使用，以阐明脑部疾病中的异常想法和感觉，并研究治疗干预的效果。