A network for self-transcendence derived from patients with brain lesions

Abstract

Self-transcendence, the reorientation of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a fundamental dimension of human psychology, yet its causal neural architecture remains poorly understood. Here we applied lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients with pre- and post-operative assessments of trait self-transcendence to identify the distributed brain network whose disruption alters this capacity. The resulting network showed significant spatial correspondence with the default mode network and, at a finer parcellation level, with frontoparietal control subnetworks. Leave-one-out analyses identified posterior midline regions as the most stable correlates of increased self-transcendence following brain lesions. Independent validation against fMRI meta-analyses of self-referential processing, compassion, and ketamine administration, alongside a neuromodulation target previously shown to modulate the sense of self, converged on a consistent model. These findings provide causal evidence for a network architecture in which posterior midline hubs constrain, and brainstem and anterior midline regions facilitate, self-transcendent experience.