Resiliency of cortical neural networks against cascaded failures

Network tools have been extensively applied to study the properties of brain functional and anatomical networks. In this paper, resiliency of Caenorhabditis elegans cortical networks against cascaded failures is studied. To this end, directed network formed by chemical connections and undirected network formed by electrical couplings through gap junctions are considered. Furthermore, two types of C. elegans networks are studied: the whole cortical network of the hermaphrodite type and the network of the posterior cortex in male C. elegans. The results show that resiliency of hermaphrodite and male networks is different. The male cortical network of chemical synapses shows extensively weaker resiliency than the randomized counterparts, whereas there are some patchy differences for the gap junctions network. However, the chemical and electrical networks of hermaphrodite type show a completely different behavior. In this type, for a range of medium to large capacity parameter (load capacity of the nodes is proportional to their capacity parameter), the network of chemical connections has significantly less resiliency (P<0.001) than the randomized networks, whereas the network of gap junctions is more resilient (P<0.001) than the random ones. These results show different functionalities of chemical and electrical connections in the cortical networks of hermaphrodite C. elegans.