Basic principles drive self-organization of brain-like connectivity structure

Abstract

The brain can be considered as a system that dynamically optimizes the structure of anatomical connections based on the efficiency requirements of functional connectivity. To illustrate the power of this principle in organizing the complexity of brain architecture, we portray the functional connectivity as diffusion on the current network structure. The diffusion drives adaptive rewiring, resulting in changes to the network to enhance its efficiency. This dynamic evolution of the network structure generates, and thus explains, modular small-worlds with rich club effects, features commonly observed in neural anatomy. Taking wiring length and propagating waves into account leads to the morphogenesis of more specific neural structures that are stalwarts of the detailed brain functional anatomy, such as parallelism, divergence, convergence, super-rings, and super-chains. By showing how such structures emerge, largely independently of their specific biological realization, we offer a new conjecture on how natural and artificial brain-like structures can be physically implemented.