A New Map of the Human Cerebral Cortex

Some very fascinating research about the brain has just been published. Using structural and functional brain imaging technology, combined with computational analyses, researchers have identified highly connected, centrally located regions of the human cortex.

These hubs form a “structural core” of the human brain, which the researchers think may act as central processors, integrating multiple inputs across the cortex. Intriguingly, these hubs correspond to a recently reported “default network,” a neural system that shows increased activity levels when subjects are resting.

"Our map is a very crude one,” says Olaf Sporns, a computational neuroscientist at Indiana University in Bloomington. But the wiring diagram is a first step toward understanding how the brain is structured and how it communicates. Such diagrams could help therapists design strategies to improve recovery of stroke victims or people with other brain injuries.

As I read several accounts of this research, my favorite passage so far has been this one: "The spatial and topological centrality of the core within cortex suggests an important role in functional integration." It seems to me that the use of the phrase "functional integration" here is more than a happy coincidence. Rather, this new research, if it is confirmed and generally accepted, may begin to fill in some of the blanks in the Feldenkraisian concept of functional integration (small f, small i). In Dr. Feldenkrais's vision it was assumed that the brain had some central processing capacity enabling it to integrate the various components necessary to produce a function. But during his lifetime there was only very limited concrete knowledge of how the brain did that, and what structures might be involved.

With the advent of various forms of brain imaging over the last thirty years, we have had many tantalizing glimpses of how various parts of the brain work together to enable mental or physical actions. These new findings suggest that science can begin to develop not only more general principles of how the brain is connected, but also specific maps of the main hubs of those connections. We may now look forward to the compilation of a "connectome," that is, a complete inventory of the wiring patterns of the brain.

Here are some further resources for those who would like to know more:

Science News: Journey to the Center of the Brain

Summary of the study, from PLoS Biology

Full text of the study