The “two-brain” approach reveals the active role of task-deactivated default mode network in speech comprehension

Exhibiting deactivation and anticorrelation with task-positive networks, the default mode network (DMN) has been traditionally thought to be suppressed to support externally oriented cognitive processes during spoken language comprehension. In contrast, recent studies examining listener-listener intersubject correlation (ISC) have proposed an active role of DMN in language comprehension. How can we reconcile those seemingly conflicting results? This study adopted a "two-brain" paradigm and combined "within-brain" and "across-brain" analyses to address this issue. We found, despite being deactivated and anticorrelated with the language network (LN) and executive control network (ECN), both the anterior and posterior DMN in the listeners' brains were temporally coupled with the homologous networks in the speaker's brain. Interestingly, the listener-speaker neural couplings persisted even after controlling for listener-listener ISC. Moreover, the coupling strength of posterior DMN positively correlated with the listeners' speech comprehension. Further dynamic causal modeling showed that the LN and ECN, the anterior DMN, and the posterior DMN occupied the bottom, intermediate, and top layers of a hierarchical system, respectively. We suggest the DMN may primarily serve as an internal module that cooperates with the externally oriented modules, potentially supporting the transformation of external acoustic signals into internal mental representations during successful language comprehension.