Default positions: how neuroscience’s historical legacy has hampered investigation of the resting mind

Callard, F.; Smallwood, J.; Margulies, D.S.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00321

Default positions: how neuroscience’s historical legacy has hampered investigation of the resting mind

Callard, F.; Smallwood, J.; Margulies, D.S.

Authors

F. Callard

J. Smallwood

D.S. Margulies

Abstract

The puzzle of the brain and mind at rest – their so-called default state – is strongly influenced by the historical precedents that led to its emergence as a scientific question. What eventually became the default-mode network (DMN) was inaugurated via meta-analysis to explain the observation that the baseline “at rest” condition was concealing a pattern of neural activations in anterior and posterior midline brain regions that were not commonly seen in external-task-driven experiments. One reason why these activations have puzzled scientists is because psychology and cognitive neuroscience have historically been focused on paradigms built around external tasks, and so lacked the scientific and theoretical tools to interpret the cognitive functions of the DMN. This externally-focused bias led to the erroneous assumption that the DMN is the primary neural system active at rest, as well as the assumption that this network serves non-goal-directed functions. Although cognitive neuroscience now embraces the need to decode the meaning of self-generated neural activity, a more deliberate and comprehensive framework will be needed before the puzzle of the wandering mind can be laid to rest.

Citation

Callard, F., Smallwood, J., & Margulies, D. (2012). Default positions: how neuroscience’s historical legacy has hampered investigation of the resting mind. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00321

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 12, 2012
Publication Date	Sep 10, 2012
Deposit Date	Sep 12, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Jun 9, 2015
Journal	Frontiers in Psychology
Print ISSN	1664-1078
Electronic ISSN	1664-1078
Publisher	Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	3
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00321
Keywords	Resting state, Daydreaming, Default-mode network, Mind-wandering, History of cognitive neuroscience.
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1496503

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Copyright Statement
© 2012 Callard, Smallwood and Margulies. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.