• Silvina G Horovitz, Allen R Braun, Walter S Carr, Dante Picchioni, Thomas J Balkin, Masaki Fukunaga, and Jeff H Duyn.
• Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. silvina.horovitz@nih.gov
• Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2009 Jul 7; 106 (27): 11376-81.

AbstractThe recent discovery of a circuit of brain regions that is highly active in the absence of overt behavior has led to a quest for revealing the possible function of this so-called default-mode network (DMN). A very recent study, finding similarities in awake humans and anesthetized primates, has suggested that DMN activity might not simply reflect ongoing conscious mentation but rather a more general form of network dynamics typical of complex systems. Here, by performing functional MRI in humans, it is shown that a natural, sleep-induced reduction of consciousness is reflected in altered correlation between DMN network components, most notably a reduced involvement of frontal cortex. This suggests that DMN may play an important role in the sustenance of conscious awareness.

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