Your brain works like a city

The organization of abig cityit may seemchaotic, but somehow gets thateverything gets where it is neededand that the set runs smoothly most days. The same could be said of ourbrain, as suggested by neurobiologist Mark Changizi and his colleagues in the latest issue of the journalComplexity. ? Natural selection has guided the evolution of the mammalian brain in the same way that politicians and businessmen have shaped small and large cities ,? says Changizi. “They both need determinedinterconnection densityto function properly “.

For example, if we compare the brain of a dog and that of a human, we see that the latter has not only grown to twice the size of the former. He has also developed many moresynapse, whatconnect more neurons to each other. In mathematical terms, Changizi has shown thatthe proportion between the surface occupied by a brain or a cityand the number ofconnectors(neurons and highwaysrespectively) is surprisinglysimilar. And that when the city or the neocortex (the most evolutionarily “modern” area of the cerebral cortex) grows, this scale always remains.

As if this were not enough, analyzing 60 North American cities Changizi and his team discovered that thenumber of exit highways in a metropolis and the number of neural synapses in the neocortexthey are very similar. Practically the only difference between the two interconnection networks, according to the scientists, is that neurons conduct information, while highways and roads transport people and materials.