New Study Suggests Universal Laws Govern Brain Structure From Mice to Men

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered that the structural features of the brain are near a critical point similar to a phase transition, observed in various species such as humans, mice, and fruit flies. This finding suggests a universal principle may govern brain structure, which could inspire new computational models to emulate brain complexity., potentially guiding the development of new brain models.

3D reconstruction of select neurons in a small region of the human cortex dataset. Credit: Harvard University/Google One such property is the well-known, fractal-like structure of neurons. This nontrivial fractal-dimension is an example of a set of observables, called “critical exponents,” that emerge when a system is close to a phase transition.

Examples of a single neuron reconstruction from each of the fruit fly, mouse and human datasets. Credit: Northwestern UniversityKovács and Ansell were amazed to find that all brain samples studied — from humans, mice and fruit flies — have consistent critical exponents across organisms, meaning they share the same quantitative features of criticality. The underlying, compatible structures among organisms hint that a universal governing principle might be at play.

Source: Tech Daily Report (techdailyreport.net)

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