What Is the Default Mode Network? The default mode network (DMN) is a system of connected brain areas that show increased activity when a person is not focused on what is happening around them. The ...

One of the most important neuroscientific discoveries of our lifetime was that of the default mode network (DMN), a set of brain regions involved in our mental downtime. Like many of the most ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Whenever you’re actively performing a task—say, lifting weights at the gym or taking a hard exam—the parts of your brain required to ...

We have all experienced boredom – that feeling of waning interest or decreased mental stimulation. Eventually we lose focus, we disengage. Time seems to pass slowly, and we may even start to feel ...

Recent advancements in neuroscience have unveiled new insights into the neural processes responsible for self-referential cognition. This research has brought particular attention to a critical neural ...

When we are concentrating on and engaged in a task, the brain's task-positive network (TPN) is activated. This network, which includes the prefrontal regions and the intraparietal sulcus of the brain, ...

When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other.