Spatial Embedding and Wiring Cost Constrain the Functional Layout of the Cortical Network of Rodents and Primates
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Mammals show a wide range of brain sizes, reflecting adaptation to diverse habitats. Comparing interareal cortical networks across brains of different sizes and mammalian orders provides robust information on evolutionarily preserved features and species-specific processing modalities. However, these networks are spatially embedded, directed, and weighted, making comparisons challenging. Using tract tracing data from macaque and mouse, we show the existence of a general organizational principle based on an exponential distance rule (EDR) and cortical geometry, enabling network comparisons within the same model framework. These comparisons reveal the existence of network invariants between mouse and macaque, exemplified in graph motif profiles and connection similarity indices, but also significant differences, such as fractionally smaller and much weaker long-distance connections in the macaque than in mouse. The latter lends credence to the prediction that long-distance cortico-cortical connections could be very weak in the much-expanded human cortex, implying an increased susceptibility to disconnection syndromes such as Alzheimer disease and schizophrenia. Finally, our data from tracer experiments involving only gray matter connections in the primary visual areas of both species show that an EDR holds at local scales as well (within 1.5 mm), supporting the hypothesis that it is a universally valid property across all scales and, possibly, across the mammalian class.
Source: PLoS Biology
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,500
Funders: European Commission, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Campus France, Université de Lyon, National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Air Force, Advanced Research Projects Agency, McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, Seventh Framework Programme, National Institute of Mental Health, National Eye Institute, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, CHIST-ERA
Awards: G1291134351, G1434536661, G1523888516, Systems Biology of Alcohol Addiction: Modeling and validating disease state networks in human and animal brains for understanding pathophysiolgy, predicting outcomes and improving therapy, G169068394, G1883033025, Organizational principles of interareal cortical networks, Functional importance of the cortical core in the high density counterstream architecture, G2538793358, G261106309, PROJET AVENIR LYON SAINT-ETIENNE, Reconstructions and Representations of Cerebral Cortex, G2973790809, G3207356259, G3756983540, G393177772, G434337789, G4866930200, PRES Towards International Gain of Excellence, INTEGRATING TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP PROCESSES IN THE MARMOSET AND MACAQUE CORTEX, G5340643184, G5702163051, G6071252945, G6085559112, Construction, Fonction Cognitive et Réhabilitation du Cerveau, G7090116110, PROCESSING STREAMS IN VISUAL CORTEX, G7391891542, Formation of Cortical Areas and Circuits, G7830320759, G7835500200, G7917759158, G8091169403, G953082745, G9575639
OpenAlex ID: W2490286622