November 28, 2025Communications BiologyOpen Access

When your heart isn’t in it anymore: cardiac correlates of task disengagement

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Investigations reveal interactions between mind-wandering, heart-rate variability, and pupil size, indicating shifts in attentional states.

Increased mind-wandering correlates with reduced pupil size and heart-rate variability, affecting vigilance and behavior.
Heart-rate variance predicts impulsive actions, while reduced heart-rate indicates lower alertness during task performance.
Analysis included electroencephalogram and electrocardiogram measures from 65 adults engaged in a sustained attention task.
Findings suggest the importance of cardiac metrics in understanding attention shifts and arousal states.

Corcoran et al. (2025) studied this question.

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Investigations reveal interactions between mind-wandering, heart-rate variability, and pupil size, indicating shifts in attentional states.