Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Default Mode Network and Disconnected Self-Awareness: When Self-Reflection Happens Without Somatic Input The default mode network is the brain’s self-construction circuit — anchored in medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate. It builds the narrative self from autobiographical memory. When its coupling with the body’s interoceptive signal weakens, you can know exactly who you are in autobiography while losing access to how you are right now. ...

Why Do I Feel Disconnected from Everyone? What Your Brain Is Actually Doing You feel disconnected from everyone because the part of your brain that simulates other people has grown louder, not quieter. Lonely brains show more default mode network volume and connectivity, not less. The DMN compensates for absent real-world contact by amplifying internal social simulation — a self-reinforcing loop that crowds out the signal it was meant to model. ...

Identity Loss After Divorce: How the Brain’s Self-Network Disintegrates and Rebuilds Identity loss after divorce is your medial prefrontal cortex losing the partner it had incorporated as a structural component of your neural self-model. The mPFC and posterior cingulate cortex run the brain’s self-referential network, and a long partnership had literally encoded the partner inside that network. Divorce removes the component. ...