A network for self-transcendence derived from patients with brain lesions
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) March 27, 2026 Morgan Rose Healey, Yaser Sanchez-Gama, Mengyuan Ding et al.
Self-transcendence, the shift of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a key aspect of human psychology, but its neural basis was unclear. By applying lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients assessed before and after surgery for trait self-transcendence, a distributed brain network was identified whose disruption alters this capacity. This network overlapped with the default mode network and frontoparietal control subnetworks. Posterior midline regions were the most stable correlates of increased self-transcendence after lesions. The findings suggest that posterior midline hubs constrain, while brainstem and anterior midline regions facilitate, self-transcendent experience.