The origin of the analysis that led to the discovery of the default mode network
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Default mode network |
| Key points | Argues that the popular media's narrative about the discovery of the default mode network contains a misconception regarding the 1997 meta-analysis that identified the common brain regions deactivated by visual tasks. |
Abstract
Over the years, there have been numerous accounts of the events involved in the discovery of the default mode network (DMN), but as different accounts have multiplied and the DMN has surfaced in the popular media, a misconception has crept into a part of that history concerning the 1997 metaanalysis that identified the common brain regions that are deactivated by visual tasks and comprise the DMN. This paper gives a personal, largely non-technical account of the genesis of that paper, correcting a misleading narrative and emphasizing the relevant context at the time in the Neuroimaging Lab at Washington University in St. Louis and cognitive neuroscience more generally.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on default mode network, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network in cognition: a topographical perspective | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cooperation between the default mode network and the frontal–parietal network in the production of an internal train of thought | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |