Broadcaster Claudia Hammond explores the wandering mind with author and psychologist Charles Fernyhough, medieval historian Hilary Powell and cognitive neuroscientist Jonny Smallwood.

We like to think we are in charge of our own minds, but how often do we find our minds wandering, however hard we might try to focus? Psychologists and neuroscientists are finding new ways of studying what the mind and the brain do when left to their own devices. Is mind-wandering a modern problem or something people have struggled with for centuries? And could a little mind-wandering now and then be good for us?

These are some of the questions that Hubbub, the first residents of The Hub at Wellcome Collection, are addressing.

Speakers:

• Charles Fernyhough, Hubbub Associate Director and psychologist, Durham University

• Hilary Powell, Hubbub Group Collaborator and medieval historian, Durham University

• Jonny Smallwood, Hubbub Group Collaborator and psychologist, University of York

Facilitator:

• Claudia Hammond, Hubbub Associate Director and Radio 4 presenter, BBC