The Default Mode Network

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a relatively recent yet still enigmatic discovery within the field of neuroscience, associated with and operating as the neuroanatomical and physiological cornerstone of the subjective sense of self. Colloquially referred to as the ‘task-negative’ network, due to the observable diminished activity when an individual is focused on completing a task, the DMN is primarily comprised of three major areas of the brain: the Posterior Cingulate Gyrus, the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, and the Inferior Parietal Lobule, as well as a variety of associated regions within the central nervous system. The DMN, having first been discovered in congruence with resting-state brain function and carrying the premature misnomer connoting ‘the default mode of operating’ for which it was attributed to, has been correlated with a multitude of functions including nomadic thinking, episodic and autobiographical cognition, tracking complex social networks, attributing the mental states of others, and a variety of other subjective functions of mentation. The DMN has garnered a wide array of fascination and enthusiasm across the noosphere of global inquiry, from those investigating the mysteries of Neuroscience, to Aesthetics, to Philosophy, as well as seekers of the esoteric and Buddhist Enlightenment. This meta-analysis of peer-reviewed and predominately neuroscientific findings not only aims to aid in elucidating and integrating the many fragments of information concerned with the neuroanatomical and physiological function of the DMN, but also hopes to touch on a deeper existential and all too human semblance of the subjective experience