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In an article published this week in the magazine Frontiers of physics, a duo of Italian researchers studied the similarities between the network of neurons in the human brain and the cosmic network of galaxies.
Top: neurons and glial cells. Bottom: the millennium simulation of the universe. Image credit: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine / Springel et al.
The human brain is a complex temporal and spatial multiscale structure in which cellular, molecular and neuronal phenomena coexist. It can be modeled as a hierarchical network, in which neurons group into circuits, columns and several interconnected functional areas.
The structure of the neuronal network allows the connection between different areas, all dedicated to the processing of specific spacetime activities on their neurons, forming the physical and biological basis of cognition.
The Universe, according to the telescope’s extensive collection of data collected over many decades, appears to be reasonably well described by a physical model called the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model, which takes into account the gravity from ordinary and dark matter, for the expansion of space-time. described by general relativity, and for the antigravity energy associated with empty space, called dark energy.
Such a model currently offers the best picture of how cosmic structures emerged from the expanding background and formed the cosmic web.
The most important building blocks of the cosmic web are the self-gravitating halos dominated by dark matter, in which ordinary matter has collapsed to form galaxies.
The initial distribution of the density fluctuations of matter was amplified in the beginning by the action of gravity and developed into larger groups or clusters of galaxies, filaments, sheets of matter and voids, in a large-scale network in all directions in space.
Although the relevant physical interactions in the two aforementioned systems are completely different, their observation through microscopic and telescopic techniques has captured a tantalizingly similar morphology, to the point that it has often been noted that the cosmic network and the network of neurons resemble each other.
“We calculated the spectral density of both systems,” said co-author Dr. Franco Vazza, an astrophysicist at the University of Bologna.
“This is a technique often used in cosmology to study the spatial distribution of galaxies.”
“Our analysis showed that the distribution of the fluctuation within the neuronal network of the cerebellum on a scale from 1 micrometer to 0.1 mm follows the same progression as the distribution of matter in the cosmic network but, obviously, on a larger scale. ranging from 5 million to 500 million light years “.
Dr. Vazza and his colleague, the neurosurgeon of the University of Verona Alberto Feletti, also calculated some parameters that characterize both the neuronal network and the cosmic network: the average number of connections in each node and the tendency to group more connections in relevant central nodes within the network.
“Once again, the structural parameters identified unexpected levels of agreement,” said Dr. Feletti.
“Probably, the connectivity within the two networks evolves following similar physical principles, despite the obvious and obvious difference between the physical powers that regulate galaxies and neurons.”
“These two complex networks show more similarities than those shared between the cosmic network and a galaxy or a neuronal network and the interior of a neuronal body.”
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F. Vazza and A. Feletti. The quantitative comparison between the neuronal network and the cosmic web. Front. Phys, published online November 16, 2020; doi: 10.3389 / fphy.2020.525731
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