What Is the Default Mode Network (DMN)? Why Letting Go Helps You Focus

Updated: 11 Oct 2026 · By Float Vietnam

Quick answer: The default mode network (DMN) is a group of connected brain regions that is most active when your attention is not on an outside task, for example in the shower, on a walk or while staring out of a window. It supports memory, self-reflection, thinking about other people and imagining the future.

What is the default mode network?

The default mode network is a large-scale brain network: several regions, far apart in the brain, whose activity rises and falls together. Its core hubs are the medial prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain, the posterior cingulate cortex and the neighbouring precuneus towards the back, and parts of the lateral parietal cortex around the angular gyrus, with links to memory areas in the medial temporal lobe. In his 2015 review in the Annual Review of Neuroscience, Marcus Raichle describes the network as spanning medial and lateral parietal, medial prefrontal and medial and lateral temporal cortex. What unites these areas is their job description. They are busiest when your mind turns inward: recalling yesterday, rehearsing a conversation, wondering what a friend meant, or picturing next year. The word “default” does not mean idle or lazy. It refers to what the brain does by default when no outside task is claiming its attention.

How was the default mode network discovered?

The DMN was found almost by accident. In brain-imaging experiments of the 1990s, researchers usually compared a task, such as reading words, with a “resting” baseline and looked for areas that became more active during the task. But a consistent set of regions did the opposite: they were more active during rest and quieter during almost any attention-demanding task. In 2001, neurologist Marcus Raichle and colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis published “A default mode of brain function” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Using PET measurements of how much oxygen the brain extracts from blood, they argued that the resting brain is not switched off; it has an organised baseline state that is suspended during goal-directed tasks. That paper named the default mode. Later work using resting-state fMRI showed these regions also fluctuate together over time, which is why researchers now speak of a default mode network.

What does the DMN have to do with mind-wandering?

Mind-wandering is the everyday experience most closely tied to the DMN. When your thoughts drift from the page you are reading to a holiday plan or an old argument, DMN hubs tend to be active. This happens constantly. In a well-known 2010 study in Science, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert used a smartphone app to contact 2,250 volunteers at random moments and ask what they were doing and thinking. People’s minds were wandering in about 46.9% of the samples, nearly half of waking life. The same study found that people reported feeling less happy while their minds wandered than while they were focused, although the content mattered: pleasant topics felt better than neutral or unpleasant ones. So mind-wandering is neither good nor bad in itself. It helps us plan, connect memories and imagine alternatives, but the quality of the thoughts makes a big difference to how we feel.

How does the DMN switch with task-positive networks?

When you concentrate on something outside yourself, such as solving a spreadsheet problem or reversing a car, a different set of regions takes the lead. Researchers often call these task-positive networks, including the dorsal attention network and the frontoparietal control (executive) network. At the same time, DMN activity usually drops. In a 2005 PNAS study, Michael Fox, Raichle and colleagues showed that even at rest, spontaneous activity in the DMN and in task-positive regions tends to be anticorrelated: when one rises, the other tends to fall. Other networks, often described as a salience network, appear to help the brain decide when to switch. The picture is not a simple on-off switch, and the networks also cooperate, for example during creative thinking. For daily life, though, the lesson is useful: attention works best in rhythm, with periods of focus and periods of letting go, rather than hours of non-stop effort.

Is the DMN linked to rumination and low mood?

Rumination means going over the same worries, regrets or self-criticism again and again without moving towards a solution. It is a different thing from relaxed daydreaming, and it is common in depression and anxiety. Brain-imaging research has linked rumination to the DMN. A 2015 review in Biological Psychiatry by Paul Hamilton, Ian Gotlib and colleagues pulled together evidence that people with major depression show stronger connectivity between the DMN and the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a region tied to negative emotion, and suggested this coupling may underlie depressive rumination. These are group-level research findings, not a test anyone can use on themselves, and the brain is far more complex than one network. If you notice that your thoughts keep looping on distressing themes, or your mood stays low for weeks, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. Relaxation practices can complement that care, never replace it.

What does meditation research show about the DMN?

Meditation is one of the most studied ways of changing how the DMN behaves. In a 2011 PNAS study, Judson Brewer and colleagues at Yale scanned experienced meditators and people who had never meditated while they practised three styles of meditation: concentration on the breath, loving-kindness and open, choiceless awareness. Across all three styles, the main DMN hubs, the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, were relatively less active in the experienced meditators. Meditators also showed stronger coupling between the posterior cingulate and regions involved in self-monitoring and cognitive control, both during meditation and at rest. The authors interpreted this as consistent with less mind-wandering. It is worth keeping the limits in view: the study was small and cross-sectional, so it shows an association, not that meditation caused the differences. Still, it fits a broader body of research suggesting that training attention changes how we relate to wandering thoughts. Read more on floatation therapy and meditation.

Does floating change the default mode network?

Only a handful of studies have looked at the DMN and floating, so honesty matters here. The clearest is a 2021 randomised study in Human Brain Mapping by Obada Al Zoubi and colleagues at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research. Participants had repeated 90-minute sessions of either Floatation-REST or a comparison condition, resting in a zero-gravity chair, with resting-state fMRI before and after. After floating, connectivity between the somatomotor cortex (body-sensing and movement areas) and posterior DMN hubs decreased; the authors titled the paper “Taking the body off the mind”. Floating also produced bigger increases in serenity and drops in state anxiety than the chair. However, the chair condition showed a broadly similar brain pattern, so the connectivity change may come from deep rest and reduced stimulation in general rather than from floating specifically. In short: floating creates an unusual state of low stimulation, and early brain data are interesting, but no study shows it improves the DMN in a lasting way.

Many floaters say ideas surface more easily after a session, a common report rather than a measured effect; see floating for creativity and memory and brainwaves.

How can you put the DMN to work in daily life?

You do not need a brain scanner to use what this research suggests. The practical idea is to give your mind regular, deliberate breaks from outside demands, while watching for the difference between gentle daydreaming and stuck, repetitive worry. Psychologists Jerome Singer and colleagues have described “positive constructive daydreaming”: playful, wishful mental wandering that can help connect ideas, as opposed to guilty or anxious thinking. A few simple habits follow from that. Take short breaks between focused blocks of work and leave your phone behind. Choose low-effort, slow activities, such as walking, watering plants or washing dishes, and let your thoughts roam. When you are stuck on a problem, step away and come back later. And if thoughts begin looping on worries, gently return attention to the breath or to what your hands are doing. Quiet, low-stimulation time, from a walk to a float, simply makes these pauses easier to find.

• Work in rhythm: focus blocks, then real breaks.
• Wander on purpose: slow, simple activities with a drifting mind.
• Notice loops: label repeating worries and return to the breath.
• Protect quiet: time without screens or noise; see why silence is good for your brain.

Note: This page is for general information. Float therapy supports wellbeing but does not replace diagnosis or treatment by a doctor. If you have a medical condition, ask your doctor before floating.

Try it at Ōmni Space. Float Vietnam’s float rooms are at 16C Quoc Huong, Thao Dien, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), open daily 9:00–21:00. Book a float or read the float therapy FAQ.