Exploring the Default Mode Network

Hans Berger, inventor of the electroencephalogram was one of the first people to theorize that the brain remains perpetually active, even across a wide variety of mental states. Whether we are awake, sleeping, focused or daydreaming our brain is always hard at work. Obviously there are key differences between these states both physically and subjectively. But how do these differences translate into brain activity? Recent fMRI investigations have shown consistent patterns of activations in people's brains when they are awake (but resting) and this has been deemed the "Default Mode" or "Resting State" network. This animation explores some relevant theories theories its activations and potential applications of the research.

The whole project took about 4 months to complete. Of course, I blame my snail's pace on whichever task-positive networks failed to inhibit default mode connectivity (teehee really bad neuro humor). That and the fact that this was my first full length frame-by-frame animation! But seriously, that's why the audio is so terrible. If anyone knows how to export a Flash CS4 file and retain decent audio quality I'm all ears (my Google-fu has failed me).