Abstract
From Structure to Function: Mapping the Connection Matrix of the Human Brain
Highlights
When American architect Louis Sullivan proffered the enduring mantra of 20th century design—form follows function—he chided his peers for violating in art a law so clearly visible in the “open apple blossom” and “sweeping eagle in his flight.” The notion that the essence of things takes shape in the matter of things, first articulated in Aristotle’s philosophy, has long guided biologists’ attempts to understand the inner workings of the most complex organ known—the human brain
Patric Hagmann, Olaf Sporns, and their colleagues mapped the large-scale network structure of the nerve fibers linking each region of the human cerebral cortex—the highly furrowed outer surface of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions
Combined with computational analyses, the researchers identified highly connected, centrally located regions of the human cortex. These hubs form a “structural core” of the human brain, which the researchers think may act as central processors, integrating multiple inputs across the cortex
Summary
When American architect Louis Sullivan proffered the enduring mantra of 20th century design—form follows function—he chided his peers for violating in art a law so clearly visible in the “open apple blossom” and “sweeping eagle in his flight.” The notion that the essence of things takes shape in the matter of things, first articulated in Aristotle’s philosophy, has long guided biologists’ attempts to understand the inner workings of the most complex organ known—the human brain. Researchers view these perceptual and behavioral responses as computational problems solved by networks made up of more than a hundred billion neurons connected through some hundred trillion synapses. Computational neuroscientists rely on mathematical tools and computer modeling to study how functional groups of neurons interact and how they process, store, and transmit information to mediate human cognition and behavior.
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