Your Brain At Work

Neuroscientists have discovered as many as 15 neural networks and subnetworks. The four described below, along with their implications for knowledge work, are considered core and are the best understood.

The Default Network

• Activates: When people are awake but not focused on external stimuli or any specific goal.
• What it controls: Introspective thought and the ability to envision the past, the future, or alternative realities.
• Crucial for understanding: Creative thinking and breakthrough innovation.

The Reward Network

• Activates: In response to stimuli that induce enjoyment—such as food and water, money, and praise.
• What it controls: Perceptions of pleasure and displeasure.
• Crucial for understanding: Motivation and incentives.

The Affect Network

• Activates: When people experience emotions.
• What it controls: Autonomic and endocrine responses (alterations in blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature) that the brain interprets as feelings.
• Crucial for understanding: Hunches and gut instincts, and the role that emotions play in decision making.

The Control Network

• Activates: When people weigh long-term consequences, check their impulses, and selectively focus their attention.
• What it controls: People’s ability to align their behavior with their goals.
• Crucial for understanding: The benefits and risks of multitasking and how to set and manage priorities.

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