In my previous blog-lecture—“Massaging the Brain”—I showed how the brain relaxes the body via the Default Mode Network (DMN), a cortical system responsible for the inward orienting of our consciousness.
There are many functionally-related systems within the brain, but there are two of special significance. One orients the brain outward to the external world while the other focuses it inward. This internalizing system is the DMN. It was discovered quite by accident during positron emission studies during tests investigating the activity of the brain when it is engaged with the external world. The DMN was relatively inactive during tasks with the outside world–such as decision-making–but became highly active when forming mental imagery, reviewing autobiographical memories, and relaxing just prior to falling asleep (Buckner & DiNicola, 2019). As the DMN gives us a sense of being conscious, it is involved in having a sense of self-agency, morality, memory organization, anticipating future behaviors by imaginary rehearsal, daydreaming, free association, stream of consciousness, and taking other people’s perspectives (Hartman & Zimberoff, 2011) as well as being highly involved in meditation (Pagoni, Cekic, & Guo, 2008; Simon, & Engstrōm, 2015).
The DMN is composed of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal lobule. This tripartite system is the seat of self-referencing thought (Davey, Pujol, & Harrison, 2016). It gives us the sense of being an individual self. It is also responsible for putting us to sleep.
It is a standard teaching point in massage therapy that, if the procedure is done correctly, it will activate the client’s peripheral nervous system which then puts him or her into a relaxed state. While this is undoubtedly true, it is not entirely accurate—indeed, it is now an entirely obsolete belief—as the DMN controls relaxation and the onset of sleep. While there have been very few studies of massage and neural activity, there is been one study that investigated the DMN activity during a brief massage application of Swedish style, reflexology, and using a massage hand tool. This study applied these three techniques to the plantar side of the right foot of 42 subjects while their brains were being scanned. Results showed that Swedish massage activated the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices; in other words, massage activates the DMN (Sliz et al, 2012).
In massage school, at least when I taught there, and being familiar with the basic massage therapy instructional texts, there is no mention of the DMN. This, I believe, is a sad example of a healing industry failing to keep up with contemporary scientific discoveries related to its work. Neuroscience has taken yet another step in understanding how touch not only relaxes the body, but helps to build resilience to stress. Massage has long been known to relieve stress—this characteristic is probably its main raison d’etre and most prominently touted benefit. (see Alderton 2022 and Moraska et al., 2010 for further review).
But, in terms of neurophysiology, how does the DMN effect work? That question as just been answered by Alexies Dagnino-Subiarbre, a neurobiologist at the Laboratory of Stress Neurobiology at the University of Valparaiso in Chile (Dagnino-Subiarbre, 2022). It is a process by which gentle touch activates the C-tactile, low threshold mechanoreceptors (CT-LTM) which then transmit signals up into the brain to the posterior insula. The posterior insula relates the signals to the anterior insula which connects to other parts of the brain including the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. These centers are also involved in emotional processing so it is important to stop thinking about touch massage as a purely sensory experience and understand it as also being a social-emotional communication. This neural activity then influences the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis which helps the body to respond to stress, cope with it, and help it adapt to its future occurrence. It now appears that CT-LTM stroking helps to optimize the functioning of the HPA axis regarding stress. The technical term for applying therapeutic touch to activate various brain areas to help manage stress is known as social buffering. This makes good sense as, in one important way, a manual therapist is a protector against negative stressors, at least for a little while.
Closing Thoughts
One of the purposes of the Center for Bodymind Education is to serve as an information resource for the latest in scientific developments which relate to Body-Mind-Spirit Treatment effects, Somatic Psychology, Neurophilosophy, and Holistic Health studies. This article is a perfect example of how neuroscience, which is progressing at a startling rate in the areas of brain functioning and consciousness, is discovering new things that affect not only the manual therapies, but other bodymind treatment modalities as well.
I hope that I am able to fulfill the CBE’s mission to diffuse such findings into the holistic health professions for their edification and advancement.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Alderton, M. (2022, Aug. 1). The science of stress: Learn more about what science is telling us about how the body responds to stress, and how massage therapy may help. AMTA Journal, https://www.amtamassage.org/publications/massage-therapy-journal/science-of-stress-and-massage/
Buckner, R. & DiNicola, L. (2019). The brain’s default network: Updated anatomy, physiology and evolving insights. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience 10, p. 593-608.
Dagnino-Subiarbre, A. (2022). Resilience to stress and social touch. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 43, p. 75-79.
Hartman, D. & Zimberoff, D. (2011). Bringing unconscious choices to awareness: ‘Default mode’, body rhythms, and hypnosis. Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies 14(2), p. 3-75.
Moraska, A., Pollini, R., Boulnager, K., Brooks, M., & Teitlebaum, L. (2010). Physiological adjustments to stress measures following massage therapy: A review of the literature. eCAM 7(4), p. 409-417.
Pagnoni, G., Cekic, M., & Guo, Y. (2008). ‘Thinking about not-thinking’: Neural correlates of conceptual processing during Zen meditation. PLoS ONE, 3(9), e3083.
Simon, R. & Engstrōm, M. (2015). The default mode network as a biomarker for monitoring the therapeutic effects of meditation. Frontiers in Psychology 6, doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00776.
Sliz, D., Smith, A., Wiebking, C., Northoff, G., & Hayley, S. (2012). Neural correlates of a single-session massage treatment. Brain Imaging and Behavior 6, p. 77-87.
Revised 03-20-25.