In a modern view of the functional anatomy of the brain, a given function arises from one or several distributed neural networks where each node has its specific value. The following simplified model of organisation could be proposed: 1) retrorolandic areas support perceptual integration through primary sensory, unimodal and heteromodal associative cortices. These regions create and activate relevant mental representations of the external world; 2) goal directed actions recruit the frontal lobe and the basal ganglia in order to elaborate, prepare, control and validate adaptive behavior; 3) medial temporal areas are essential nodes in the network necessary to encode, consolidate and retrieve information from episodic memory. In addition, this tripartite "cognitive brain" is modulated and regulated by ascending systems from the brainstem that maintain the adequate level of arousal and awareness and by the so-called limbic and paralimbic structures that provide the affective and emotional context of cognition. The circuits that subserve language are superimposed to this tripartite subdivision of the brain.