Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Small-world brain networks.

Danielle Smith Bassett1, Ed Bullmore

  • 1Brain Mapping Unit, University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

The Neuroscientist : a Review Journal Bringing Neurobiology, Neurology and Psychiatry
|November 3, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Understanding the long-term neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Nature reviews. Neurology·2026
Same author

From mapping to explaining brain function: the generative theoretical ambition of SPM.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2025
Same author

Systematic review and mega-analysis of the peripheral blood transcriptome in depression implicates dysregulation of lymphoid cells and histones.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences·2025
Same author

Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction.

Nature medicine·2024
Same author

Early adolescent perceived friendship quality aids affective and neural responses to social inclusion and exclusion in young adults with and without adverse childhood experiences.

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience·2024
Same author

Neuroscience Needs Network Science.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2023
Same journal

Nonclustered Protocadherins in Autism: Integrating Cell Adhesion and Activity-Dependent Signalling.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
Same journal

Brain-on-a-Chip and Blood-Brain Barrier-on-a-Chip Modeling for Neurodegenerative Disorders: Recent Progress.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
Same journal

The Left Ventral Premotor Cortex: Powerful Roles in Reading.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
Same journal

The 3-Body Problem: How Astrocytes May Govern Plasticity.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
Same journal

Perisynaptic Astrocytic Processes as Communication Hubs and Early Sites of Dysfunction.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
Same journal

Heat Shock Proteins in Schizophrenia: Integrating Stress Responses, Molecular Pathways, and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies.

The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry·2026
See all related articles

Complex brain networks exhibit small-world topology, balancing local and global connections for efficient information processing. This structure supports specialized and integrated functions, crucial for understanding brain organization and behavior.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Network Science
  • Graph Theory

Background:

  • Complex networks often display small-world topology, featuring high local clustering and short global path lengths.
  • This topology is advantageous for brain networks, enabling both specialized and integrated information processing efficiently.
  • Small-world networks are economical, minimizing wiring costs while maximizing dynamical complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce graph theory concepts for small-world network analysis.
  • To review the application of these methods to macaque and cat cortical connectivity.
  • To explore the relevance of small-world models for human brain function and behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Graph theory analysis of network topology.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Quantification of cortical connectivity matrices from tract-tracing studies.
  • Application of small-world analysis to electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography and fMRI data.

    • Main Results:

    • Small-world properties are evident in both anatomical and functional brain networks.
    • These networks balance specialized and distributed processing, optimizing information flow.
    • Evolutionary pressures favor cost-effective information processing systems with small-world architectures.

    Conclusions:

    • Small-world models offer a powerful framework for understanding brain structure and function.
    • This topology is relevant for explaining complex behaviors and brain system resilience.
    • The analysis of brain networks using small-world principles is advancing across species and methodologies.