> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://api.thesapientcompany.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The 7 networks

> The seven brain networks the model reports, and what each one tells you.

The brain doesn't work as one undivided whole. Decades of fMRI research describe the cortex as a set of large-scale **networks**, each handling a broad kind of work. Sapient summarizes its predicted brain response into seven of these networks, one value each, every second.

Reading the networks is the most direct way to understand *why* a lens moved. Every lens is a blend of these seven signals.

## The seven networks

| Network               | Plain meaning                       | What it tells you                                                                     |
| --------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Visual**            | Seeing & imagery                    | How much the content is engaging the eyes: visual detail, motion, and mental imagery. |
| **Somatomotor**       | Body & movement / voice & sound     | Response to physical action, gesture, and the texture of voice and sound.             |
| **Dorsal Attention**  | Focused attention                   | How hard the viewer is deliberately concentrating. This is the focus network.         |
| **Ventral Attention** | Salience & surprise                 | How much something is grabbing attention involuntarily. This is the alerting network. |
| **Limbic**            | Emotion & reward                    | Emotional pull and the sense of reward or desire.                                     |
| **Frontoparietal**    | Reasoning & effort                  | Active thinking, problem-solving, and mental work.                                    |
| **Default Mode**      | Reflection, memory & self-relevance | Inward processing: relating content to yourself, your memories, and meaning.          |

## How to read them

* **Visual** rises with rich, moving, or detailed imagery; it falls on static or empty frames.
* **Somatomotor** lifts with physical action, gesture, and the grain of a voice or a sound.
* **Dorsal Attention** is voluntary focus: the viewer choosing to lock in.
* **Ventral Attention** is involuntary capture: a cut, a noise, or a twist yanking attention without permission.
* **Limbic** is the heart of emotional and reward responses; it's the engine behind both feeling and wanting.
* **Frontoparietal** rises when the viewer has to work to follow, decode, or reason through something.
* **Default Mode** rises when content turns inward: memory, self-relevance, reflection, and meaning.

<Card title="From networks to lenses" href="/knowledge-base/from-networks-to-lenses">
  How these seven networks combine into the four lenses.
</Card>