DMN is anti-correlated with task-focused attention
The default mode network activity is often inversely correlated with fluctuating activity in brain networks associated with task-focused attention like task-positive network, including the dorsal attention network and ventral attention network (Fox2005).
There is a significant reduction in the DMN-TPN anticorrelation after psilocybin (Carhart-Harris2013, Shinozuka2023), and the same exists in experienced meditators during rest (Brewer2011). Decreased DMN-TPN coupling is especially reduced during non-dual awareness (Josipovic2011).
- Disruption of the normal process by which priors are updated → hallucinations (Russo2019).
“Thus, it follows that DMN and TPN activity must be competitive or orthogonal in order to avoid confusion over what constitutes self, subject and internal on the one hand, and other, object and external on the other.” (Carhart-Harris2014)