Musement: The activity of the brain’s default mode network

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to identify the inner human activity Peirce calls musement with the mental processes that arise through the workings of the brain’s default mode network. This network is a specific, recently anatomically defined brain system, which is most active when individuals are not focused on the external environment. In doing so, musement, which was defined by Peirce over a hundred years ago, will finally be situated within what today we understand as its neurobiological origin.</jats:p>