Published on January 8, 2019 | Updated on January 29, 2019

CORTEX conference by Jonathan Smallwood

November 24th, 2017

Searching for the elements of thought: a topographcial perspective on the role of the default mode network in cognition

Although it is now recognised that the default mode network plays an important role in human cognition, the precise processes that it serves remains a matter of debate. This talk will adopt a topographic account of this system that emerges from the observation that this system is located in regions of cortex that are functionally distant from input and important for memory retrieval. Focusing on both studies of task based and spontaneous thought, this talk will argue that the regions of transmodal cortex, that include the default mode network, are important for states that are relatively unconstrained by input signals and this allows information from memory to play a more important role in cognition.