In neuroscience, the default mode network (DMN), also known as the default network, default state network, or anatomically the medial frontoparietal network (M-FPN), is a large-scale brain network primarily composed of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and angular gyrus. It is best known for being active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. It can also be active during detailed thoughts related to external task performance.[3] Other times that the DMN is active include when the individual is thinking about others, thinking about themselves, remembering the past, and planning for the future.[4][5] The DMN creates a coherent "internal narrative" control to the construction of a sense of self.[6]
The DMN was originally noticed to be deactivated in certain goal-oriented tasks and was sometimes referred to as the task-negative network,[7] in contrast with the task-positive network. This nomenclature is now widely considered misleading, because the network can be active in internal goal-oriented and conceptual cognitive tasks.[8][9][10][11] The DMN has been shown to be negatively correlated with other networks in the brain such as attention networks.[12]
^Horn, Andreas; Ostwald, Dirk; Reisert, Marco; Blankenburg, Felix (2013). "The structural-functional connectome and the default mode network of the human brain". NeuroImage. 102: 142–151. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.09.069. PMID24099851. S2CID6455982.
^Garrity, A.; Pearlson, G. D.; McKiernan, K.; Lloyd, D.; Kiehl, K. A.; Calhoun, V. D. (2007). "Aberrant default mode functional connectivity in schizophrenia". Am. J. Psychiatry. 164 (3): 450–457. doi:10.1176/ajp.2007.164.3.450. PMID17329470.