Table 1.
Network name(s) |
Brain regions included | Tasks observed in | Psychological operation in a constructionist ontology |
---|---|---|---|
“limbic” [27] | *medial temporal lobe, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex |
core affect generation: representing visceromotor states from prior experience or engaging visceromotor control of the body to create the core affective tone (pleasure or displeasure with some degree of arousal) that is a basic feature of all conscious experience, and that directs basic approach/withdrawal behaviors. |
|
“salience network” [33] --- “ventral attention network” [27] --- “cingulol opercular network” [65] --- network #8 [26] |
anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), bilateral dorsal anterior insula and frontal operculum |
|
responses. Likely, this network can be decomposed further into aspects that represent bodily states (a ventral anterior insula network) and use bodily states to drive attention and behavior (a dorsal anterior insula network) [34] |
“default network” [27] --- network #4 [26] |
medial prefrontal cortex, retrosplenial area, posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, medial temporal lobe (hippocampus, entorhinal cortex), bilateral superior temporal sulcus |
|
conceptualization: representing prior experiences (i.e., memory or category knowledge). During autobiographical memory or representation of concept knowledge, this process simulates prior sensorymotor experiences. During perception of objects, this process helps make meaning of sensations from the world in a context-specific manner. During emotion, this process helps make meaning of sensations from the body in a context-specific manner. |
“frontoparietal network” [27] --- “executive control network” [33] --- network #9 [26] |
prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobe, inferior parietal sulcus, precuneus, and middle cingulate cortex (mCC) |
activity in other networks to create a unified conscious field during the construction of a mental state (e.g., selecting some conceptual content when meaning is made of sensations and inhibiting other content; selecting some sensations for conscious awareness and inhibiting others). |
|
“dorsal attention network” [27] --- network #9 [26] |
bilateral frontal eye fields, dorsal posterior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, area MT+ |
|
visuospatial attention: modulating activity in exteroceptive sensory regions (e.g., selecting which visual sensation are selected for conscious awareness and inhibiting others). This process may be specific to visual sensations given the import of these sensations in human evolution. |
“sensorimotor” [27] |
precentral and postcentral gyri (sensorimotor cortex), Heschl’s gyrus (primary auditory cortex) cortex, posterior insula |
exteroceptive sensory perception: representing auditory and tactile sensations |
|
“visual” [27] | occipital lobe |
|
exteroceptive sensory perception: representing visual sensations |
Note: By examining how brain networks perform during emotions as well as mental states that are typically considered to be other psychological faculties (e.g., memory, perception, theory of mind, etc.), it is possible to use a more robust form of reverse inference to hypothesize the “lowest common denominator” that is the best psychological description for each network. The result is a hypothesis about the functional architecture of the brain that is rooted in basic psychological processes (rather than the set of commonsense faculties now in use; On the need for a new functional architecture in cognitive neuroscience, see [46, 49, 52]). *Although Yeo et al. did not include subcortical structures in their analysis, we include subcortical structures in this network based on their known anatomical connections. We include the nuclei of the basal ganglia, which are involved in orchestrating effortful behavior and motor control [80]. We also hypothesize that the central nucleus of the amygdala, which is involved in producing autonomic responses [80], and the midbrain periacqueductal gray, which is involved in coordinating coherent physiological and behavioral responses [80] are part of this network. The basal ganglia, the amygdala and the periacqueductal gray all project to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the major cortical site in Yeo et al.’s limbic network.