Principles of inter-areal connections of the macaque cortex

Nikola Markov (1) , Maria Magdolna Ercsey-Ravasz (2) , Marie-Alice Gariel (1) , Julien Vezoli (1) , René Quilodran (1) , Arnaud Falchier (1) , Cyril Huissoud (1) , Simon Clavagnier (1) , Jerome Sallet (1) , Pascale Giroud (1) , Pascale Giroud (1) , Camille Lamy (1) , Pierre Misery (1) , Dominique Sappey-Marinier (3) , Pascal Barone (1) , Colette Dehay (1) , Kenneth Knoblauch (1) , Henry Kennedy (1) , Zoltan Toroczkai (2)

1 SBRI - Institut cellule souche et cerveau
2 Department of Physics
3 CERMEP - imagerie du vivant - Centre d'Etude et de Recherche Multimodal Et Pluridisciplinaire en imagerie du vivant

The operation of real world networks is largely determined by their weighted and spatial characteristics. Surprisingly little is known about these features in cortex. We generated in macaque, a consistent database of inter-areal connections comprising projection densities (link weights) and physical lengths. Contrary to previous assumptions, the cortical connection matrix is dense (66%) and therefore, not a small-world graph. Link weights are both highly specific and heterogeneous and we show that it is these properties that characterize the network. The embedding of this weighted network is governed by a distance rule that predicts both its binary features as well as the global and local communication efficiencies. Analysis of the efficiency of this weighted network suggests that small changes in global communication efficiency are offset by large changes in local efficiency. These findings indicate a weight-based hierarchical layering in cortical architecture and processing.

Mots clés: Connectionnist models; Oscillation and synchronization; Information coding

Domaines: Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]; Neurosciences

Nikola Markov, Maria Magdolna Ercsey-Ravasz, Marie-Alice Gariel, Julien Vezoli, René Quilodran, et al.. Principles of inter-areal connections of the macaque cortex. Cinquième conférence plénière française de Neurosciences Computationnelles, "Neurocomp'10", Aug 2010, Lyon, France. ⟨hal-00553400⟩