Sublime

Crucially for our purposes, the DMN is negatively correlated with the attention network (AN), meaning that the more it is activated, the less access we have to the power of our attention.

THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK (DMN) The default mode network is the most thoroughly researched network in the brain. Anatomically, the DMN is also called the medial frontoparietal network (M-FPN) and is composed of the medial prefrontal cortex, the adjacent anterior cingulate cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, and the angular gyrus.

According to recent neuroscientific research, even when we’re ‘doing nothing’, our brains are still active. In particular, there’s a region of the brain called the ‘default mode network’ (DMN) that governs the strange places our absent minds go to. The DMN helps us to recall memories,7 to daydream and to imagine the future. And it becomes more

Trapped in the past or future in the DMN, you’re likely to abandon projects you once started with enthusiasm, make careless mistakes, or, worse, fall into a state of misery and despair, for no good reason whatsoever.

Essentially, the DMN is responsible for brain activity when a person is focused inward, including during wakeful rest, daydreaming, mind-wandering, and reminiscing. It allows us to carry out self-referential processing, or the ability to reflect on ourselves.