Rat Brain Possesses a Default Mode Network

Hanbing Lu¹, Qihong Zou¹, William Rea¹, Elliot A. Stein¹, Yihong Yang¹

We have identified coherent, spontaneous activity within a specific brain network in rats that mirrors the default mode network (DMN) previously reported in human and non-human primates, suggesting that operations performed by the DMN may be a fundamental physiological process in the mammalian brain. Our data raise interesting questions about the functions of DMN across species, and open novel opportunity to investigate the physiological basis of DMN using rodent model.