Simple mathematical pattern describes shape of neuron ‘jungle’ | KurzweilAI: Cajal proposed that neurons spread out their branches so as to use as little wiring as possible to reach other cells in the network...
New work by UCL neuroscientists has revisited this century-old hypothesis using modern computational methods. They show that a simple computer program that connects points with as little wiring as possible can produce tree-like shapes that are indistinguishable from real neurons...
They also show that the shape of neurons follows a simple mathematical relationship called a power law*: dendrites grow to fill a target space in an optimal manner and, similar to a minimum spanning tree, use the least amount of wiring to reach all synaptic contacts.
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