Definition
Plain language
The part of the brain that handles general problem-solving — math, planning, novel tasks — as opposed to the part that handles language.
As stated in the literature
A frontoparietal cortical network implicated in domain-general cognitive control, functionally separable from the language network; invoked as biological motivation for letting a model's continuous 'thinking' substrate persist underneath its token output rather than resetting each token.
Why it matters: It matters as biological motivation for letting a model's underlying 'thinking' persist beneath its words rather than resetting with each token it writes.
For example, this brain network lights up when you tackle an unfamiliar logic puzzle or plan a route, separate from the regions that handle reading or speaking.
Heard on the show
“The brain has a language network and what neuroscientists call a multiple-demand network — the part that does math, planning, novel problem-solving — and they're functionally separable.”Episode 032 — A Sticky-Note for Every Layer: Letting Transformers Remember What They Were Just Thinking