Small-world Neural Networks in The Brain
Both anatomical connections in the brain and the synchronization networks of cortical neurons exhibit small-world topology.
A small-world network of neurons can exhibit short-term memory. A computer model developed by Solla et al. had two stable states, a property (called bistability) thought to be important in memory storage. An activating pulse generated self-sustaining loops of communication activity among the neurons. A second pulse ended this activity. The pulses switched the system between stable states: flow (recording a "memory"), and stasis (holding it).
On a more general level, many large-scale neural networks in the brain, such as the visual system and brain stem, exhibit small-world properties.
Read more about this topic: Small-world Network
Famous quotes containing the words networks and/or brain:
“The great networks are there to prove that ideas can be canned like spaghetti. If everything ends up by tasting like everything else, is that not the evidence that it has been properly cooked?”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)
“So immense are the claims on a mother, physical claims on her bodily and brain vigor, and moral claims on her heart and thoughts, that she cannot ... meet them all and find any large margin beyond for other cares and work. She serves the community in the very best and highest way it is possible to do, by giving birth to healthy children, whose physical strength has not been defrauded, and to whose moral and mental nature she can give the whole of her thoughts.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)