Mathematicians help to unlock brain function

Mathematicians from Queen Mary, University of London will bring researchers one-step closer to understanding how the structure of the brain relates to its function in two recently published studies. Publishing in Physical Review Letters the researchers from the Complex Networks group at Queen Mary's School of Mathematical Sciences describe how different areas in the brain can have an association despite a lack of direct interaction. The team, in collaboration with researchers in Barcelona, Pamplona and Paris, combined two different human brain networks - one that maps all the physical connections among brain areas known as the backbone network, and another that reports the activity of different regions as blood flow changes, known as the functional network. They showed that the presence of symmetrical neurons within the backbone network might be responsible for the synchronised activity of physically distant brain regions. Lead author Vincenzo Nicosia , said "We don't fully understand how the human brain works. So far the focus has been more on the analysis of the function of single, localised regions. However, there isn't a complete model that brings the whole functionality of the brain together.