Secret structure in the wiring diagram of the brain

In the brain, our perception arises from a complex interplay of neurons that are connected via synapses. But the number and strength of connections between certain types of neurons can vary. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University Medical Center Mainz and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU), together with a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, as part of the Priority Program Computational Connectomics (SPP2041), have now discovered that the structure of the seemingly irregular neuronal connection strengths contains a hidden order. This is essential for the stability of the neuronal network. The study has now been published in the journal PNAS.