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The compactness of neurons in the brain is governed by a fundamental mathematical function , new research find .
The find , which confine true across a variety of mammals , could assist researchers make better computer theoretical account of the brain in the time to come .
Marmoset embryonic stem cells forming neurons.
" This distribution allows us to expect at this in a statistical way and could help to happen the relationship between nerve cell densities and the connectivity in the brain , " study cobalt - authorAitor Morales - Gregorio , a research worker at the German scientific institute Forschungszentrum Jülich .
Morales - Gregorio and his colleagueAlexander van Meegen , a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University , led the new study , which was published in July in the journalCerebral Cortex . During their attempts to build models of the brain , van Meegan told Live Science , the squad clear scientist knew trivial about what dictated the density of neurons in the nous . While late work had liken densities from metal money to specie or from some bed of the cerebral mantle — the prohibited , wrinkled part of the brain — there was small information about how the density of nerve cells might variegate within cortical regions .
The researchers combined previously collected data from mice , marmoset , macaques , homo , galagos ( also have it off as bush child ) , hooter scallywag and baboons . They find that neurons were dish out in a coarse practice across all of these mammalian : Within different cortical regions , the concentration could be discover with a lognormal distribution .
This graphic shows the right-skewed lognormal distributions of neuron density in the cortex of mammals.
On a graph , a lognormal distribution is skewed to one side , with a long tail tapering off to the rightfulness . What this present , van Meegen said , is that there are a wad of region with mean neuron densities , but a few regions have much higher density . And those mellow density region may be important , because they interpret uncommon but important deviations from the norm .
" If we only look at the base number of nerve cell , peradventure one does n’t see the difference , " van Meegen said . But the long - go after distribution means that a few changes to extreme outliers in density might make a big difference of opinion in brain connectivity or even operate .
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The researchers also investigate why this pattern might hold across very different mammals . They find that give the way nerve cell come up — by cells dissever in a somewhat variable environment — the lognormal distribution arises course , without any need for regulatory process .
" It may originate from how the wit do to be , by cell splitting over and over with a niggling bit of noise , maybe from national unevenness or changes in the environment , " or variability in the surround , Morales - Gregorio say . " This probably explain why it ’s everywhere . "
The researchers are now looking at how this pattern of dispersion affects how nerve cell communicate with one another , and whether disruptions in the design might conduct to neurologic problem .
