title: The brain's default network: origins and implications for the study of psychosis.
abstract: The brain's default network is a set of regions that is spontaneously active during passive moments. The network is also active during directed tasks that require participants to remember past events or imagine upcoming events. One hypothesis is that the network facilitates construction of mental models (simulations) that can be used adaptively in many contexts. Extensive research has considered whether disruption of the default network may contribute to disease. While an intriguing possibility, a specific challenge to this notion is the fact that it is difficult to accurately measure the default network in patients where confounds of head motion and compliance are prominent. Nonetheless, some intriguing recent findings suggest that dysfunctional interactions between front-oparietal control systems and the default network contribute to psychosis. Psychosis may be a network disturbance that manifests as disordered thought partly because it disrupts the fragile balance between the default network and competing brain systems.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Department of Psychology, Center for Brain Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Randy L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Buckner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: default mode network; functional MRI; prospection; resting-state