The Neurobiology of Dissociation

What changes during dissociation

• Default mode network: connectivity decreases — the "narrative self" quiets.
• Sensory cortices: become decoupled from association areas — input feels altered, distant, or symbolic.
• Thalamocortical loops: gating shifts, producing the characteristic perceptual changes.

Why this may be therapeutic

Reduced DMN dominance loosens habitual self-referential thinking. For many people, this creates space to see entrenched patterns from outside them — the cognitive analogue to the new synapses forming below.