All parts of the brain › Networks

Brain networks: which parts work together as one?

Large-scale brain networks, also called intrinsic brain networks, are collections of widespread brain regions found by statistical analysis of the fMRI signal: regions whose activity rises and falls together, even at rest. There is no universal atlas of them, so each network page here lights the whole gyri and nuclei that hold a network’s regions, never its exact borders. [1]

The 2 networks

• Where is the default mode network? 7 parts lit: Prefrontal cortex, Cingulate gyrus, Superior parietal lobule, Angular gyrus, Hippocampus, Parahippocampal gyrus, Middle temporal gyrus
• Where is the salience network? 7 parts lit: Insula, Cingulate gyrus, Amygdala, Putamen, Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Midbrain

Parts in more than one network

The same gyrus can hold regions of different networks: the atlas lights the whole part, so a shared part here means each network has a region somewhere on it, not that the regions overlap.

• Cingulate gyrus: default mode network (posterior cingulate cortex), salience network (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex)

Every brain function and the parts behind it

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); it draws whole gyri and nuclei, so a network’s regions are shown by the parts that hold them.