Does the brain have a baseline? Why we should be resisting a rest
Alexa Morcom and Paul Fletcher examine the assumptions behind the idea that the brain has a default or intrinsic mode of functioning. That idea rests on observations that a consistent network of regions is highly active when no explicit task is performed, on the substantial energy demand of the resting state, and on the network being more active at rest than in many explicit tasks. Some have taken this to mean that rest is an absolute baseline that must be understood to build a comprehensive picture of the brain. The authors question the value and the interpretability of studying the resting state and suggest that observations made at rest have no privileged status as a fundamental metric of brain functioning. They challenge the utility of resting-state studies in several domains of research. This page cites the paper as the main objection to treating rest as the reference condition.
Alexa Morcom and Paul Fletcher examine the assumptions behind the idea that the brain has a default or intrinsic mode of functioning. That idea rests on observations that a consistent network of regions is highly active when no explicit task is performed, on the substantial energy demand of the resting state, and on the network being more active at rest than in many explicit tasks. Some have taken this to mean that rest is an absolute baseline that must be understood to build a comprehensive picture of the brain. The authors question the value and the interpretability of studying the resting state and suggest that observations made at rest have no privileged status as a fundamental metric of brain functioning. They challenge the utility of resting-state studies in several domains of research. This page cites the paper as the main objection to treating rest as the reference condition.
Written from the abstract on Crossref, read 2026-10-23.
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Morcom, A. M., & Fletcher, P. C. (2007). Does the brain have a baseline? Why we should be resisting a rest. NeuroImage, 37(4), 1073-1082. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.09.013