I remember seeing a lot of research about this a few years back, suggesting replaying memory's during wakeful rest might help long term memory retention, although it was inconclusive.
I was wondering if there is a prevailing opinion on whether the DMN plays a significant role in information consolidation.
I found points arguing that idle/resting times serve functions of processing new inputs into our idea of the world (1) and information/memory consolidation (2). The problem is that these studies tend to be older and are usually mentioned as tangent points and so I was very interested in whether the current prevailing opinion about time spent where the DMN dominant does serve an important function for well-being.
Especially because it seems quite prevalent in pop culture science to say that the DMN is a "dragon we need to slay" and turning it off is the goal to a better life. A lot of that bases itself on a Harvard study that found a positive relationship between mental well-being and less time the DMN is activated.
(1) The Importance of Rest and Sleep: Maintaining Balance Is Key You need to modulate expending physical energy with taking time to rest, reflect, and recharge. Scientc American noted that research pub-lished in 2012 by researchers from the University of Southern California and MIT argued that "when we are resting the brain is anything but idle and that, far from being purposeless or unproductive, downtime is in fact essential to mental processes that affirm our identities, develop our understanding of human behavior and instill an internal code of ethics." These processes may depend on the brain circuit that kicks in when people are in a kind of daydreaming, resting state—a circuit brain researchers call the default mode network.
(2) More recent theories propose that fundamental intrinsic processes such as information consolidation and stabilization may be related to activity in default mode regions [13–15]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134578/
Thanks a lot for your time!
