What Your Brain Is Really Doing When You're Doing 'Nothing'

When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network (DMN) is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other. New research, including a recent study of the brain on psilocybin, is revealing the default mode networks's role in memory, social awareness and sense of self. Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-y... Related Papers: "A default mode of brain function" (Raichle et al., 2001) https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073... "Functional connectivity in the resting brain: A network analysis of the default mode hypothesis" (Greicius et el., 2001) https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073... "20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis" (Menon, 2023) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... "Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain" (Siegel et al., 2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158... --------- Chapters: 00:00 What is the default mode network? 00:43 Hans Berger and the discovery of the network 02:36 Functional brain networks 03:24 The network's role in episodic, prospective, and semantic memory 04:14 Connection to self-awareness, social cognition, and theory of mind 04:39 Mind wandering and self-reflection 05:06 Interaction with other networks and brain dysfunction 06:24 What psilocybin reveals about the network 07:46 How the network creates a sense of self --------- VISIT our website: https://www.quantamagazine.org LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: https://www.simonsfoundation.org