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November 7, 2011 | 11
Conciousness and healthy brain function appear to emerge not from neurons, but from the networks linking them together. Scientists are only just beginning to map that complex network and understand how it works. Whereas previous studies have shown that some regions of the human brain have more connections than others, until now no one has known exactly how those "hubs" interact.
A new study, published November 2 in The Journal of Neuroscience, used MRI scans to map brain activity in 21 people. They found that the areas with the most connections—the hubs—were more strongly connected to one another than to other, less popular regions.
The researchers liken the favored networks to a country club setting, in which people with a great number of social connections bond with other connection-rich socialites. In the brain, the socialites (the hubs with the most connections, shown in red in the image) included the regions that aggregate and process many kinds of information—the superior frontal and superior parietal cortex, for example, as well as the subcortical hippocampus, putamen and thalamus.
The close-knit organization of these central hubs helps the brain stay resilient to damage. The architecture is like that found in well-designed electrical power grids—a tight knit means that if one power plant cannot produce enough energy, another one can compensate. Similarly, the authors wrote, the brain's rich-club connectivity might provide resilience "in case of malfunction of one of its key hubs."
The strong connections also mean that damage to a rich-club hub could have more devastating impacts than damage to a less connected area. Because network abnormalities are thought to underlie several disorders—including Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's, schizophrenia and autism—the researchers hope that a better understanding of the brain's networks can untangle new ways to understand and treat disease.
—Sarah Fecht
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11 Comments
Add CommentI'm constantly amazed by the broad conclusions drawn from such small sample groups (21 individuals in this case) in neurological studies. Might not there be conflicting results from studies of individuals representing more diverse genetic and social groups? Are the 'neural network' (if that term has been properly used here) interconnection configurations of American college freshmen the same as Eskimos - all remanescient of country clubs?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJtdwyer, you're right on. Check out this paper on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) people studied in the behavioral sciences. Almost every claim made by cognitive neuroscientists is grandiose speculation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/WeirdPeople.pdf
according to me there is a need of new branch of science which is made by mixing biology,psychology and biology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think that broad conclusions were drawn here. These are valid observations for a multitude of networks - but to analyze the behavior of a neural network is much more difficult compared to a power grid or a social network (you need fMRI or terahertz scanner at least). So 21 scans is a reasonable number in this case in my opinion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNobody stated, that the neural interconnections should be similarly configured in different brains: the american freshmen might have a hub in mind related to a hamburger, the eskimo's corresponding neuron might be related to a particular variety of snow... The similarity is in the architecture of the brain, not in the particular configuration.
I would suggest to add mathematics to this list: nonlinear dynamics and metastable systems of chaos theory are difficult to understand without the queen of sciences.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIts clear the information is dummied down for the general public to understand. Use of analogies for comparison may seem to trivialize a complex feature when read by a specialist, unless one understands the general reader is not a neuro-physiologist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOtherwise, I immediately wondered if I host a medical condition in the part of my brain because of a persistent tremor in my head.... my second thought is lots of things cause tremors and tremors persistent in particular.
Your opinion seems reasonable.However,there are a lot of points should be taken into consideration.First,MRI scan is harmful to us and is very expensive.Moreover,MRI is not as accurate as we used to think.A social survey is unnecessary,I doubt.Since we can not get a better or much more scientific conclusion,neither.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt still amazes me how the brain works, that in some parts of the brain when something my not be functiong as strongly another part will work harder to compensate. Also with more research done someday there may be a cure for diseases such as alzhiemers. The use of the country club analysis really helps the general public to understand. I know that i don't always understand medical terminology and psychology can often times be confusing. This article made everything much easier to understand and comprehend.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think schizophrenia is incorrectly included here. Have there been any controlled (i.e. control of patients with schizophrenia who are not on drug therapy) MRI studies that demonstrate observable brain anomalies? I don't think so. Also, schizophrenia is a condition with late onset and additive qualities (hearing voices), not subtractive elements (i.e. damage to basal ganglia in Parkinson's). The above pertains to people with schizophrenia who have not suffered brain damage due to drug usage or other environmental toxicity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNeural nodes are adaptive to environmental and learning experiences and form the basis of memories. As I recall, the brain has locations that respond to specific criteria and it is in the interconnections of these locations that memories and recognitions are reconstructed. I would like to understand how the brain actually performs complex calculations and develops metaphors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheck out this book:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson
It's a fascinating read by a renowned scientist. Apparently you are sharing some of the same thoughts.