Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/Frontal Parietal Networks

Frontal Parietal Networks
A Frontal Parietal Network is a connection between the prefrontal lobes and the Parietal Lobes. There are two main networks on each Hemisphere of the brain. Each one is thought to answer a different question, the Ventral connection (on the top of the brain) is thought to be the Where connection, while the Medial Connection (on the side of the brain) is thought to be the What connection.

Recent work at NSI, has linked the hippocampus, the Parietal Lobe, and the Prefrontal cortex to deal with three different aspects of the question where?. Essentially the hippocampus deals with where in a global sense, the parietal lobe deals with where in the route between two points, and the prefrontal Lobe deals with how selective (decisive) we are going to be in following the path between the two points. This decisiveness is related to the perceived reward of getting to the end point of the route. If the reward is perceived to be small decisiveness goes down, and the route becomes a meander, if the reward is perceived to be large, decisiveness goes up, and the route straightens out, approaching a line between the two points if possible.

The second Frontal Parietal Network is thought to link Objects to Rewards. The parietal lobe defines what objects are available, and the prefrontal lobe Links those objects to the expected rewards associated with them. hold up a candy, and a baby (beyond a certain age) will immediately be very decisive about that candy.

This obviously has something to do with attention, and something to do with goal seeking behavior, in that the decisiveness seems related to the perceived importance/nearness/stability of the reward. Nobody can claim that the candy doesn't usually get the child's attention. And, it is quite obvious that the acquisition of the candy becomes a goal to the baby.