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Global optimization of cerebral cortex layout.

ABSTRACT: Functional areas of mammalian cerebral cortex seem positioned to minimize costs of their interconnections, down to a best-in-a-billion optimality level. The optimization problem here, originating in microcircuit design, is: Given connections among components, what is the physical placement of the components on a surface that minimizes total length of connections? Because of unfeasibility of measuring long-range "wire length" in the cortex, a simpler adjacency cost was validated. To deal with incomplete information on brain networks, a size law was developed that predicts optimization patterns in subnetworks. Macaque and cat cortex rank better in this connection optimization than the wiring of comparably structured computer chips, but somewhat worse than the macroeconomic commodity-flow network among U.S. states. However, cortex wiring conforms to the size law better than the macroeconomic patterns, which may indicate cortex optimizing mechanisms involve more global processes.

SUBMITTER: Cherniak C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC327154 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Global optimization of cerebral cortex layout.

Cherniak Christopher C Mokhtarzada Zekeria Z Rodriguez-Esteban Raul R Changizi Kelly K

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20040113 4

Functional areas of mammalian cerebral cortex seem positioned to minimize costs of their interconnections, down to a best-in-a-billion optimality level. The optimization problem here, originating in microcircuit design, is: Given connections among components, what is the physical placement of the components on a surface that minimizes total length of connections? Because of unfeasibility of measuring long-range "wire length" in the cortex, a simpler adjacency cost was validated. To deal with inc ...[more]

PMID: 14722353

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Project description:The human cerebral cortex is populated by specialized regions that are organized into networks. Here we estimated networks using a Multi-Session Hierarchical Bayesian Model (MS-HBM) applied to intensively sampled within-individual functional MRI (fMRI) data. The network estimation procedure was initially developed and tested in two participants (each scanned 31 times) and then prospectively applied to 15 new participants (each scanned 8 to 11 times). Detailed analysis of the networks revealed a global organization. Locally organized first-order sensory and motor networks were surrounded by spatially adjacent second-order networks that also linked to distant regions. Third-order networks each possessed regions distributed widely throughout association cortex. Moreover, regions of distinct third-order networks displayed side-by-side juxtapositions with a pattern that repeated similarly across multiple cortical zones. We refer to these as Supra-Areal Association Megaclusters (SAAMs). Within each SAAM, two candidate control regions were typically adjacent to three separate domain-specialized regions. Independent task data were analyzed to explore functional response properties. The somatomotor and visual first-order networks responded to body movements and visual stimulation, respectively. A subset of the second-order networks responded to transients in an oddball detection task, consistent with a role in orienting to salient or novel events. The third-order networks, including distinct regions within each SAAM, showed two levels of functional specialization. Regions linked to candidate control networks responded to working memory load across multiple stimulus domains. The remaining regions within each SAAM did not track working memory load but rather dissociated across language, social, and spatial / episodic processing domains. These results support a model of the cerebral cortex in which progressively higher-order networks nest outwards from primary sensory and motor cortices. Within the apex zones of association cortex there is specialization of large-scale networks that divides domain-flexible from domain-specialized regions repeatedly across parietal, temporal, and prefrontal cortices. We discuss implications of these findings including how repeating organizational motifs may emerge during development.

Dataset Information

Global optimization of cerebral cortex layout.

Publications

Global optimization of cerebral cortex layout.

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