Heterogeneous and higher-order cortical connectivity undergirds efficient, robust and reliable neural codes

Egas Santander, D, Pokorny, C, Ecker, A, Lazovskis, J, Santoro, M, Smith, JP ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4209-1604, Hess, K, Levi, R and Reimann, MW, 2024. Heterogeneous and higher-order cortical connectivity undergirds efficient, robust and reliable neural codes. iScience. ISSN 2589-0042

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Abstract

We hypothesized that the heterogeneous architecture of biological neural networks provides a substrate to regulate the well-known tradeoff between robustness and efficiency, thereby allowing different subpopulations of the same network to optimize for different objectives. To distinguish between subpopulations, we developed a metric based on the mathematical theory of simplicial complexes that captures the complexity of their connectivity by contrasting its higher-order structure to a random control, and confirmed its relevance in several openly available connectomes. Using a biologically detailed cortical model and an electron microscopic data set, we showed that subpopulations with low simplicial complexity exhibit efficient activity. Conversely, subpopulations of high simplicial complexity play a supporting role in boosting the reliability of the network as a whole, softening the robustness-efficiency tradeoff. Crucially, we found that both types of subpopulations can and do coexist within a single connectome in biological neural networks, due to the heterogeneity of their connectivity.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	iScience
Creators:	Egas Santander, D., Pokorny, C., Ecker, A., Lazovskis, J., Santoro, M., Smith, J.P., Hess, K., Levi, R. and Reimann, M.W.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	13 December 2024
ISSN:	2589-0042
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111585 DOI 2324814 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	17 Dec 2024 09:09
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2024 09:09
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52727

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