The Default Mode Network (DMN) occupies a pivotal and contested position across the depth-psychology corpus. Far from a mere neuroanatomical curiosity, it emerges as the neural substrate for some of the most philosophically charged functions in mental life: self-reference, temporal synthesis, imaginative simulation, and the construction of subjective identity. Barrett situates the DMN as the origin point of predictive simulations, linking it to the interoceptive network and arguing that it generates concepts rather than merely storing them — a claim with profound implications for constructivist theories of emotion. Carhart-Harris advances the boldest thesis, identifying the DMN as the neurological seat of the ego, whose organized suppression of entropy is disrupted by psychedelic agents, thereby illuminating primary states of consciousness with connections to Freudian and Jungian frameworks. Damasio positions the DMN within the architecture of narrative self-construction and the integration of experiential image-streams. Siegel foregrounds its clinical relevance, showing that impaired DMN integration is implicated in PTSD, bipolar disorder, and failures of empathy. Alcaro and Carta bring an evolutionary and psychotherapeutic dimension, treating the DMN as the hub of reflective imagination. Menon's salience network model casts the DMN as the complementary antipode to the central executive — a dyad that structures all goal-directed and internally-oriented cognition. The corpus thus positions the DMN at the intersection of consciousness, selfhood, psychopathology, and therapeutic transformation.
In the library
21 substantive passages
one reason why the DMN is so highly and persistently active, is that it receive regular endogenous input from internal drivers... its enduring presence fits comfortably with the idea that it is the seat of the ego
Carhart-Harris argues that the DMN's continuous high-level activity reflects its function as the neurological seat of the ego, whose organized constraint of entropy underwrites normal self-awareness.
Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis
the default mode network has a general function: it allows you to simulate how the world might be different from the way it is right now... The default mode network unites past, present, and future.
Barrett advances the thesis that the DMN functions as an experience simulator, integrating past concepts, present predictions, and future goals — making it the neural basis of temporal self-continuity.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, 2017thesis
A prediction originates as a multisensory summary, representing the goal of the concept, in a portion of the interoceptive network known as the default mode network.
Barrett argues that the DMN is not a storage site for concepts but the generative origin of predictive multisensory summaries, positioning it as the engine of conceptual construction.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, 2017thesis
entry into primary states depends on a collapse of the normally highly organized activity within the default mode network (DMN) and a decoupling between the DMN and the medial temporal lobes
Carhart-Harris proposes that psychedelic and other primary states of consciousness are characterized by a structural dissolution of the DMN's organized activity and its uncoupling from memory systems.
Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis
a portion of the interoceptive network, called the default mode network, has been called the 'self system.' It consistently increases in activity during self-reflection. If you have atrophy in your default mode network, as happens in Alzheimer's disease, you eventually lose your sense of self.
Barrett identifies the DMN as the neurological 'self system,' whose degradation — as in Alzheimer's disease — produces the dissolution of personal identity.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, 2017thesis
DMN regions are centers of dense connectivity, implying that they serve as important connector hubs for information integration and routing... this functional centrality of the DMN is not shared by other brain networks
Carhart-Harris establishes the DMN as the apex of a functional hierarchy, uniquely positioned as a connector hub that orchestrates integration across all other brain networks.
Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis
the DMN is characterized by high intrinsic activity during resting states with visual fixating or with eye closed that decreases when subjects engage in goal-directed tasks
Alcaro and Carta situate the DMN's defining feature — inverse coupling with goal-directed cognition — as the foundation for their neuro-ethological account of imagination and reflective mind.
Alcaro, Antonio; Carta, Stefano, The 'Instinct' of Imagination: A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy, 2019thesis
The DMN is involved in a wide array of processes, including self-awareness and empathy... Yet if this DMN is not well integrated with the rest of the brain, it may lead to certain difficulties, including an excessively differentiated sense of self, one isolated from others.
Siegel argues that the DMN's integrative function underlies both self-awareness and empathy, and that its clinical dysregulation — evident in PTSD and bipolar disorder — manifests as failures of neural and interpersonal integration.
Siegel, Daniel J., The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020thesis
The process related to the integration of experiences requires the narrative-like ordering of images and the coordination of those images with the subjectivity process. This is achieved by association cortices... of which the default mode network is the best-known example.
Damasio positions the DMN as the primary large-scale network responsible for the narrative ordering of images and the coordination of experience with subjectivity.
Damasio, Antonio R., The strange order of things life, feeling, and the making, 2018supporting
when subjects are at rest, not engaging in a task requiring focused attention
Damasio references Raichle's foundational discovery of the default network's resting-state activity, linking it to the posteromedial cortices implicated in self-construction.
Damasio, Antonio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain, 2010supporting
the DMN is associated with introspective thought... a dorsal frontoparietal attention network (DAN) is associated with visuospatial attention... a classic example of a 'task positive network'
Carhart-Harris maps the DMN's introspective function against task-positive networks, arguing that the normal anti-correlation between them breaks down in primary states.
Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting
the default mode network (DMN), which includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). During the performance of cognitively demanding tasks, the CEN typically shows increases in activation, whereas the DMN shows decreases in activation
Menon establishes the DMN's reciprocal relationship with the central executive network, a foundational dynamic that underlies the salience network's role as a switching mechanism between internal and external orientations.
Menon, Vinod, Saliency, switching, attention and control: a network model of insula function, 2010supporting
The brain on art: Intense aesthetic experience activates the default mode network... Art reaches within: Aesthetic experience, the self and the default mode network.
Vessel, Starr, and Rubin's work — cited here — establishes that intense aesthetic experience activates the DMN, connecting self-referential processing to aesthetic absorption.
Menninghaus, Winfried, What Are Aesthetic Emotions?, 2015supporting
default mode network (DMN) in brain, 36–37, 203, 215, 261n
Keltner indexes the DMN as the neural substrate of the 'default self,' implicating it in the self-transcendent dissolution characteristic of awe experience.
Keltner, Dacher, Awe The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can, 2023supporting
Two networks are critical to the understanding of boredom: the default mode netw
Lench identifies the DMN as one of two critical networks in the neural architecture of boredom, situating it within a broader functional account of emotional states.
Lench, Heather C., The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
methylphenidate decreases blood flow to the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal cortex in adults with ADHD in direct proportion to improved performance on cognitive tasks, which has been attributed to an improved efficiency of neural processing in these regions and the reduced mind-wandering induced by stimulants
Peterson demonstrates that stimulant-mediated suppression of default-mode activity in ADHD patients directly correlates with cognitive improvement, establishing a pharmacological causal link between DMN regulation and executive performance.
Peterson, Bradley S., An fMRI Study of the Effects of Psychostimulants on Default-Mode Processing During Stroop Task Performance in Youths With ADHD, 2009supporting
enhanced salience–central executive and salience–default network coupling may reflect deficits in context-dependent engagement and disengagement of cognitive systems important for attending to salient external stimuli or internal mental events
Yang implicates aberrant salience-DMN coupling in ADHD psychopathology, supporting the model in which the DMN's failure to disengage appropriately underlies attentional dysregulation.
Yang, Zhen, Neural correlates of symptom improvement following stimulant treatment in adults with ADHDsupporting
Many studies seem to show that the default mode and salience networks work in opposition: a brain can be in an internal mode, with the default mode network 'activated' and the salience network 'deactivated'
Barrett elaborates the oppositional dynamics between the DMN and salience network, framing them as the neural correlates of the internal versus external orientational modes of processing.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, 2017supporting
The psychedelic state induced by ayahuasca modulates the activity and connectivity of the default mode network.
McGovern cites research linking ayahuasca-induced psychedelic states to altered DMN connectivity, situating this finding within a broader neuropsychological account of Jungian archetypes.
McGovern, Hugh, Eigenmodes of the Deep Unconscious: The Neuropsychology of Jungian Archetypes and Psychedelic Experience, 2025aside
The processing is further assisted by support networks such as the default mode network and by normal modulation signals hailing from brain-stem nuclei and basal forebrain nuclei.
Damasio briefly classifies the DMN as one among several support networks that assist the integration of cross-modal sensory signals within association cortices.
Damasio, Antonio R., The strange order of things life, feeling, and the making, 2018aside
The default mode and salience networks go by many names (Barrett and Satpute 2013)
Barrett notes the terminological plurality surrounding the DMN and salience network, signaling the conceptual instability that attends their definition across disciplinary contexts.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, 2017aside