From Cajal to Connectome and Beyond

One goal of systems neuroscience is a structure-function model of nervous system organization that would allow mechanistic linking of mind, brain, and behavior. A necessary but not sufficient foundation is a connectome, a complete matrix of structural connections between the nodes of a nervous syste...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of neuroscience 2016-07, Vol.39 (1), p.197-216
Main Authors: Swanson, Larry W, Lichtman, Jeff W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
big data
Brain
Brain - physiology
Connectome - methods
Humans
Matrix
Models, Neurological
Nervous system
network analysis
neural connections
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neurons - physiology
Neurosciences
Synapses - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:One goal of systems neuroscience is a structure-function model of nervous system organization that would allow mechanistic linking of mind, brain, and behavior. A necessary but not sufficient foundation is a connectome, a complete matrix of structural connections between the nodes of a nervous system. Connections between two nodes can be described at four nested levels of analysis: macroconnections between gray matter regions, mesoconnections between neuron types, microconnections between individual neurons, and nanoconnections at synapses. A long history of attempts to understand how the brain operates as a system began at the macrolevel in the fifth century, was revolutionized at the meso- and microlevels by Cajal and others in the late nineteenth century, and reached the nanolevel in the mid-twentieth century with the advent of electron microscopy. The greatest challenge today is extracting knowledge and understanding of nervous system structure-function architecture from vast amounts of data.
ISSN:0147-006X
1545-4126
DOI:10.1146/annurev-neuro-071714-033954