"You Are Who You Are by Default" --by Tina Hesman Saey, in Science News
"You Are Who You Are by Default" --by Tina Hesman Saey, in Science News
"It may be off when you’re on, but the brain network behind daydreams and a sense of self is no slacker"
from the article:
"Scientists learn about the brain’s networks by asking people to perform all sorts of mental acrobatics — interpreting optical illusions, solving riddles, taking tests of mental or muscular skills. But some neuroscientists think they can learn even more about the brain by asking volunteers to just lie back, close their eyes and let their minds wander.
Such unstructured journeys of the mind — be they planning tonight’s dinner, thinking about that meeting at work and what your boss said afterward, debating whether to drive or fly for your next vacation, or recalling that day in your childhood when you first sat in your new tree house listening to birds chirp —turn out to offer clues about one of the most important, mysterious and well-connected networks of all. It’s called the default mode network, and it’s responsible for what the brain does when it is doing nothing in particular. It’s the brain’s core, both physically and mentally, and it’s better connected to the brain’s system of circuits than Kevin Bacon is to movie stars."
--But what does it all mean? I hope someone who is studying neuroscience gets on with a reaction to the article.
More:
"“I think the default mode network is the most exciting thing that has happened in cognitive neuroscience in quite some time,” says Peter Fransson, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Default brain settings may lead to daydreaming and mind-wandering, but the network also conducts serious business. Neuroscientists still hotly debate the network’s exact functions, however. Among its jobs may be running life simulations, providing a sense of self and maintaining crucial connections between brain cells. A few researchers doubt the network is anything special at all.
But evidence suggests that a malfunctioning default network is involved in diseases and disorders as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, Tourette syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder..."
There's an interesting discussion about what happens developmentally with the "default network."
"Brain connections in 7-year-olds are organized differently than in adults. Children have more short-range connections among neighboring brain regions and fewer long-range connections, particularly among the parts of the default network in the back and front, the team reported last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As children age, the connections are rewired. Adolescents have a network structure somewhere between that of elementary-age children and adults."
"Once people reach adulthood, activity in the network is fairly consistent from person to person, with some slight differences between the sexes and in older versus younger people, Williamson and his colleagues wrote in a 2008 paper in NeuroReport.
This consistency in the network from person to person is remarkable, especially considering what its function is supposed to be. Everyone’s brain is thinking different thoughts while in the default mode, Fair says, and yet all healthy brains in default mode look essentially alike."
Still, I ask, what does it all mean? How can we know? Can we?
"It may be off when you’re on, but the brain network behind daydreams and a sense of self is no slacker"
from the article:
"Scientists learn about the brain’s networks by asking people to perform all sorts of mental acrobatics — interpreting optical illusions, solving riddles, taking tests of mental or muscular skills. But some neuroscientists think they can learn even more about the brain by asking volunteers to just lie back, close their eyes and let their minds wander.
Such unstructured journeys of the mind — be they planning tonight’s dinner, thinking about that meeting at work and what your boss said afterward, debating whether to drive or fly for your next vacation, or recalling that day in your childhood when you first sat in your new tree house listening to birds chirp —turn out to offer clues about one of the most important, mysterious and well-connected networks of all. It’s called the default mode network, and it’s responsible for what the brain does when it is doing nothing in particular. It’s the brain’s core, both physically and mentally, and it’s better connected to the brain’s system of circuits than Kevin Bacon is to movie stars."
--But what does it all mean? I hope someone who is studying neuroscience gets on with a reaction to the article.
More:
"“I think the default mode network is the most exciting thing that has happened in cognitive neuroscience in quite some time,” says Peter Fransson, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Default brain settings may lead to daydreaming and mind-wandering, but the network also conducts serious business. Neuroscientists still hotly debate the network’s exact functions, however. Among its jobs may be running life simulations, providing a sense of self and maintaining crucial connections between brain cells. A few researchers doubt the network is anything special at all.
But evidence suggests that a malfunctioning default network is involved in diseases and disorders as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, Tourette syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder..."
There's an interesting discussion about what happens developmentally with the "default network."
"Brain connections in 7-year-olds are organized differently than in adults. Children have more short-range connections among neighboring brain regions and fewer long-range connections, particularly among the parts of the default network in the back and front, the team reported last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As children age, the connections are rewired. Adolescents have a network structure somewhere between that of elementary-age children and adults."
"Once people reach adulthood, activity in the network is fairly consistent from person to person, with some slight differences between the sexes and in older versus younger people, Williamson and his colleagues wrote in a 2008 paper in NeuroReport.
This consistency in the network from person to person is remarkable, especially considering what its function is supposed to be. Everyone’s brain is thinking different thoughts while in the default mode, Fair says, and yet all healthy brains in default mode look essentially alike."
Still, I ask, what does it all mean? How can we know? Can we?
Tags: default+network, neuroscience
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