Decoding representations of personally familiar others in the default mode network
Taylor D. Guthrie, Aussie D. Frost, Robert S. Chavez
Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience September 28, 2026 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-026-01495-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational fMRI study with round-robin design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 113 |
| Population | 113 participants organized into 20 groups of 5-6 who were personally familiar with one another |
| Topics | Default mode network |
| Key findings | Neural activity patterns in the default mode network allowed above-chance decoding of which personally familiar person a participant was thinking about, even without faces or voices. Decoding was robust across endorsed and nonendorsed traits, suggesting the signal reflects abstract person knowledge rather than perceptual cues or trait endorsement. |
Abstract
The human brain's ability to form and maintain rich internal representations of personally familiar others, even in the absence of direct sensory input, is a prominent feature of social cognition. We tested whether the identity of familiar individuals can be decoded from neural activity patterns elicited during internally generated reflection. Using a round-robin fMRI design (N = 113; 20 groups of 5-6 participants), subjects completed a trait-judgment task requiring yes/no decisions about whether adjectives described themselves or specific members of their social group. Multivariate searchlight classification revealed significant above-chance decoding of target identity throughout the default mode network. This decoding was observed in the absence of faces or voices, suggesting that the discriminative signal reflects abstract person knowledge rather than perceptual identity cues. Decoding performance was robust across endorsement conditions, with similar results observed for trials involving endorsed and nonendorsed traits. Together, these findings indicate that the default mode network supports stable, internally generated representations of personally familiar others that remain detectable independent of trait endorsement.
In the evidence
This study is part of the evidence base for a synthesis in the library. Here is how each one recorded it.
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Neural activity patterns in the DMN allowed above-chance decoding of which personally familiar person a participant was thinking about, even without faces or voices.
Synthesized
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on default mode network, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional connectivity of default mode network components: Correlation, anticorrelation, and causality Healthy subjects | 2008 | Observational study using resting-state fMRI and seed correlation analysis | |
| Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network Healthy subjects | 2009 | Experimental study using fMRI | |
| Dynamic reconfiguration of the default mode network during narrative comprehension Human subjects | 2016 | Experimental study | |
| Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State Healthy human participants | 2013 | Experimental study | |
| The brain on art: intense aesthetic experience activates the default mode network Human observers | 2012 | Observational study with fMRI and behavioral analysis |