Default But Not Rest: Topological Discrimination Defines the Default Mode Network
Bo Wang, Tiangang Zhou, Sheng He et al. preprint
A task-related cortical network, the Topological Discrimination Network (TDN), was discovered by contrasting brain activations from topological discrimination tasks with local geometric discrimination tasks. The TDN and the default mode network (DMN) consist of essentially the same brain regions, and the fMRI response of topological discrimination in those regions exhibited consistent temporal dynamics with resting state. The robustness of the TDN is supported by multiple experiments at different field strengths (3T and 7T MRI) and different signals (BOLD and CBF). The results suggest that topological discrimination could almost be considered a functional default mode of the brain, defining a functional baseline with consistency across participants and sessions.