How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett

The intrinsic activity in your brain is not random; it is structured by collections of neurons that consistently fire together, called intrinsic networks. These networks operate somewhat like sports teams. A team has a pool of players; at any given moment, some players are in the game and others sit on the bench, ready to jump in when needed. Likewise, an intrinsic network has a pool of available neurons. Each time the network does its job, different groupings of its neurons play (fire) in synchrony to fill all the necessary positions on the team. You might recognize this behavior as degeneracy, because different sets of neurons in the network are producing the same basic function. Intrinsic networks are considered one of neuroscience’s great discoveries of the past decade.5