The default mode network and social understanding of others: what do brain connectivity studies tell us

The default mode network (DMN) is involved in understanding others across emotion perception, empathy, theory of mind, and morality. The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays a key role, with its subregions contributing differently: the ventral MPFC in the medial temporal lobe subsystem connects with emotion regions for emotional engagement; the anterior MPFC in cortical midline structures helps distinguish self from others; and the dorsal MPFC subsystem connects with the temporo-parietal junction for understanding others' mental states. As social behaviors become more complex, frontal regions involved are located higher, reflecting a shift from automatic to cognitive processing. Posterior cingulate cortex connectivity also changes. The DMN is indispensable for social understanding.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The Default Mode Network (DMN) has been found to be involved in various domains of cognitive and social processing. The present article will review brain connectivity results related to the DMN in the fields of social understanding of others: emotion perception, empathy, theory of mind, and morality. Most of the reviewed studies focused on healthy subjects with no neurological and psychiatric disease, but some studies on patients with autism and psychopathy will also be discussed. Common results show that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays a key role in the social understanding of others, and the subregions of the MPFC contribute differently to this function according to their roles in different subsystems of the DMN. At the bottom, the ventral MPFC in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem and its connections with emotion regions are mainly associated with emotion engagement during social interactions. Above, the anterior MPFC (aMPFC) in the cortical midline structures (CMS) and its connections with posterior and anterior cingulate cortex contribute mostly to making self-other distinctions. At the top, the dorsal MPFC (dMPFC) in the dMPFC subsystem and its connection with the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) are primarily related to the understanding of other's mental states. As behaviors become more complex, the related regions in frontal cortex are located higher. This reflects the transfer of information processing from automatic to cognitive processes with the increase of the complexity of social interaction. Besides the MPFC and TPJ, the connectivities of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) also show some changes during tasks from the four social fields. These results indicate that the DMN is indispensable in the social understanding of others.