Brain structure and dynamics across scales: In search of rules

Xiao Jing Wang, Henry Kennedy

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Louis Henry Sullivan, the father of skyscrapers, famously stated 'Form ever follows function'. In this short review, we will focus on the relationship between form (structure) and function (dynamics) in the brain. We summarize recent advances on the quantification of directed- and weighted-mesoscopic connectivity of mammalian cortex, the exponential distance rule for mesoscopic and microscopic circuit wiring, a spatially embedded random model of inter-areal cortical networks, and a large-scale dynamical circuit model of money's cortex that gives rise to a hierarchy of timescales. These findings demonstrate that inter-areal cortical networks are dense (hence such concepts as 'small-world' need to be refined when applied to the brain), spatially dependent (therefore purely topological approach of graph theory has limited applicability) and heterogeneous (consequently cortical areas cannot be treated as identical 'nodes').

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)92-98
Number of pages7
JournalCurrent Opinion in Neurobiology
Volume37
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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