truly involved in the comprehension aspect of the story and not the auditory or language aspect. the default mode network is deactivated during some external goal-oriented tasks such as visual attention or cognitive working memory tasks. however, with internal goal-oriented tasks, such as social working memory or autobiographical tasks, the dmn is positively activated with the task and correlates with other networks such as the network involved in executive function. regions of the dmn are also activated during cognitively demanding tasks that require higher-order conceptual representations. the dmn shows higher activation when behavioral responses are stable, and this activation is independent of self-reported mind wandering. a hitherto unsuspected possibility is that the default network is activated by the immobilization inherent in the testing procedure (the patient is strapped supine on a stretcher and inserted by a narrow tunnel into a massive metallic structure). this procedure creates a sense of entrapment and, not surprisingly, the most commonly reported side-effect is claustrophobia. this alternative view is suggested by a recent article that links theory of mind to immobilization. recent research has shown that the dmn is related to the perception of beauty, in which the network becomes activated in a generalized way to aesthetically moving domains such as artworks, landscapes, and architecture. this would explain a deep inner feeling of pleasure related to aesthetics, interconnected with the sense of personal identity, due to the network functions related to the self. clinical significance the default mode network has been hypothesized to be relevant to disorders including alzheimer's disease, autism, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder (mdd), chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and others. in particular, the dmn has also been reported to show overlapping yet distinct neural activity patterns across different mental health conditions, such as when directly comparing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) and autism. people with alzheimer's disease show a reduction in glucose (energy use) within the areas of the default mode network. these reductions start off as slight decreases in patients with mild symptoms and continue to large reductions in those with severe symptoms. surprisingly, disruptions in the dmn begin even before individuals show signs of alzheimer's disease. plots of the peptide amyloid-beta, which is thought to cause alzheimer's disease, show the buildup of the peptide is within the dmn. this prompted randy buckner and colleagues to propose the high metabolic rate from continuous activation of dmn causes more amyloid-beta peptide to accumulate in these dmn areas. these amyloid-beta peptides disrupt the dmn and because the dmn is heavily involved in memory formation and retrieval, this disruption leads to the symptoms of alzheimer's disease. dmn is thought to be disrupted in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. these individuals are impaired in social interaction and communication which are tasks central to this network. studies have shown worse connections between areas of the dmn in individuals with autism, especially between the mpfc (involved in thinking about the self and others) and the pcc (the central core of the dmn). the more severe the autism, the less connected these areas are to each other. it is not clear if this is a cause or a result of autism, or if a third factor is causing both (confounding). although it is not clear whether the dmn connectivity is increased or decreased in psychotic bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, several genes correlated with altered dmn connectivity are also risk genes for mood and psychosis disorders. rumination, one of main symptoms of major depressive disorder, is associated with increased dmn connectivity and dominance over other networks during rest. such dmn hyperconnectivity has been observed in first-episode depression and chronic pain. altered dmn connectivity may change the way a person perceives events and their social and moral reasoning, thus increasing their susceptibility to depressive symptoms. lower connectivity between brain regions was found across the default network in people who have experienced long-term trauma, such as childhood abuse or neglect, and is associated with dysfunctional attachment patterns. among people experiencing ptsd, lower activation was found in the posterior cingulate gyrus compared to controls, and severe ptsd was characterized by lower connectivity within the dmn. adults and children with adhd show reduced anticorrelation between the dmn and other brain networks. the cause may be a lag in brain maturation. more generally, competing activation between the dmn and other networks during memory encoding may result in poor long-term memory consolidation, which is a symptom of not only adhd but also depression, anxiety, autism, and schizophrenia. modulation the default mode network (dmn) may be modulated by the following interventions and processes: acupuncture – deactivation of the limbic brain areas and the dmn. it has been suggested that this is due to the pain response. antidepressants – abnormalities in dmn connectivity are reduced following treatment with antidepressant medications in ptsd. attention training technique - research shows that even a single session of attention training technique changes functional connectivity of the dmn deep brain stimulation – alterations in brain activity with deep brain stimulation may be used to balance resting state networks. meditation – structural changes in areas of the dmn such as the temporoparietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus have been found in meditation practitioners. there is reduced activation and reduced functional connectivity of the dmn in long-term practitioners. various forms of nondirective meditation, including transcendental meditation and acem meditation, have been found to activate the dmn. physical activity and exercise – physical activity, and more likely aerobic training, may alter the dmn. in addition, sports experts are showing networks differences, notably of the dmn. psychedelic drugs – reduced blood flow to the pcc and mpfc was observed under the administration of psilocybin. these two areas are considered to be the main nodes of the dmn. one study on the effects of lsd demonstrated that the drug desynchronizes brain activity within the dmn; the activity of the brain regions that constitute the dmn becomes less correlated. psychotherapy – in ptsd, the abnormalities in the default mode network normalize in individuals who respond to psychotherapy interventions. sleep deprivation – functional connectivity between nodes of the dmn in their resting-state is usually strong, but sleep deprivation results in a decrease in connectivity within the dmn. recent studies suggest a decrease in connectivity between the dmn and the task-positive network as a result of sleep loss. sleeping and resting wakefulness onset of sleep – increase in connectivity between the dmn and the task-positive network. rem sleep – possible increase in connectivity between nodes of the dmn. resting wakefulness – functional connectivity between nodes of the dmn is strong. stage n2 of nrem sleep – decrease in connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. stage n3 of nrem sleep – further decrease in connectivity between the pcc and mpfc. criticism some have argued the brain areas in the default mode network only show up together because of the vascular coupling of large arteries and veins in the brain near these areas, not because these areas are actually functionally connected to each other. support for this argument comes from studies that show changing in breathing alters oxygen levels in the blood which in turn affects dmn the most. these studies however do not explain why the dmn can also be identified using pet scans by measuring glucose metabolism which is independent of vascular coupling and in electrocorticography studies measuring electrical activity on the surface of the brain, and in meg by measuring magnetic fields associated with electrophysiological brain activity that bypasses the hemodynamic response. the idea of a "default network" is not universally accepted. in 2007 the concept of the default mode was criticized as not being useful for understanding brain function, on the grounds that a simpler hypothesis is that a resting brain actually does more processing than a brain doing certain "demanding" tasks, and that there is no special significance to the intrinsic activity of the resting brain. nomenclature the default mode network has also been called the language network, semantic system, or limbic network. even though the dichotomy is misleading, the term task-negative network is still sometimes used to contrast it against other more externally-oriented brain networks. in 2019, uddin et al. proposed that medial frontoparietal network (m-fpn) be used as a standard anatomical name for this network.