New research reveals the brain’s ‘daydreaming’ network plays a surprising role in learning new skills

Researchers at Queen’s University have uncovered a surprising player in supporting how our brains learn and apply new motor skills: the Default Mode Network (DMN). Usually linked to daydreaming, recalling memories, or planning for the future, this network also helps us transfer motor skills, for instance, from one hand to the other, or apply them in new situations.

Not where we expected

For decades, experts believed that the motor parts of the brain, especially areas controlling movement, were mainly responsible for learning and applying new skills. But recent research led by associate professor in the Department of Psychology Jason Gallivan and his team at Queen’s University challenges that idea. When people practice a task with one hand and then perform the same task with the other, the motor areas aren’t the main drivers of this skill transfer. Instead, the DMN – a collection of higher-level brain regions associated with internal thoughts – plays a key role.

“Our findings flip conventional wisdom on its head,” says Dr. Gallivan, senior author of the study published in , and an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. “We showed that the network usually active during rest, the so-called ‘daydreaming’ network, is crucial when the brain generalizes learned skills to new contexts.”

The study

The researchers asked volunteers to learn a special motor task using their dominant hand. Later, participants performed the task with their non-dominant hand while their brain activity was recorded using functional MRI (fMRI). This allowed the team to see which parts of the brain “lit up” and how different regions connected during both learning and transfer.

Using advanced tools to analyze whole-brain activity, the scientists discovered a clear pattern: the brain reactivated the exact same patterns in the DMN when participants switched hands. This means the DMN stores and shares the skill in a way that doesn’t depend on which hand is used.

“This reactivation suggests the DMN holds a kind of blueprint for the skill, offering a flexible, hand-independent way to apply learned movements,” Dr. Gallivan explains.

When people practice a task with one hand and then perform the same task with the other, the Default Mode Network (DMN) – a collection of higher-level brain regions associated with internal thoughts – plays a key role.

Why is this important?

This finding offers a significant shift in our understanding of motor learning. Rather than being purely about muscle control in dedicated motor regions, this new finding shows that the process also relies on higher-order brain networks responsible for strategy and planning.

A key insight is that the brain appears to create an abstract “blueprint” for a skill – a plan that isn't tied to the specific hand or muscles used, but to the overall strategy of the movement. This helps explain why a skill learned with one hand can be so readily transferred to the other – the brain is simply accessing the same central blueprint.

Surprisingly, this blueprint resides in the DMN, which has unique structural properties, such as having lower myelin content, that may provide the biological flexibility and plasticity required to form and access these skill blueprints. Ultimately, this work suggests that mastering a physical skill is as much a cognitive activity as it is a physical one, revealing a new and fundamental role for one of the brain's most-studied networks.

Potential for rehabilitation

Understanding the DMN’s role could have a significant impact on treatments for people recovering from strokes or brain injuries. Therapies that actively engage the DMN – targeting planning and strategy areas – might improve how patients recover movement skills or learn new ones after injury. Traditional, therapy focuses more on the motor cortex and muscles. This research suggests widening the focus to include higher brain functions.

“Our work opens exciting new avenues for rehabilitation,” Dr. Gallivan says. “This suggests that recovery from a stroke might not just be about physical repetition. We might be able to accelerate rehabilitation by also engaging this ‘daydreaming’ network – using techniques like strategic planning or guided mental practice to help the brain access its stored ‘blueprint’ for a movement and apply it to a limb that’s been affected by injury.”

Broader impact

The discovery that a network often considered a “resting” or “daydreaming” system is central to learning motor tasks challenges long-standing beliefs. It also shows how the brain uses flexible and distributed systems to master everyday skills, like writing or playing sports.

Beyond motor learning, the methods used – mapping whole-brain activity patterns and analyzing their global structure – offer new ways to study brain function. This could lead to insights into other areas such as memory, decision-making, and even mental health.

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