The origin of the analysis that led to the discovery of the default mode network

Over the years, there have been numerous accounts of the events involved in the discovery of the default mode network (DMN), but as different accounts have multiplied and the DMN has surfaced in the popular media, a misconception has crept into a part of that history concerning the 1997 metaanalysis that identified the common brain regions that are deactivated by visual tasks and comprise the DMN. This paper gives a personal, largely non-technical account of the genesis of that paper, correcting a misleading narrative and emphasizing the relevant context at the time in the Neuroimaging Lab at Washington University in St. Louis and cognitive neuroscience more generally.