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Summary: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6787415/
HOW YOUR BRAIN IS LIKE THE INTERNET
MIND'S GEOGRAPHY TRACES CLASSIC NETWORK PATTERN
BY ROBERT ROY BRITT
SENIOR SCIENCE WRITER
UPDATED: 7:23 P.M. ET JAN. 4, 2005
Your brain functions a lot like the Internet or a network of friends,
scientists said Tuesday.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the
activity in people's brains and how different regions connect. They
conclude the human brain can be visualized as a complex interacting
network that relies on nodes to convey information efficiently from
place to place.
Very few jumps are necessary to connect any two nodes, the study
found.
"This so-called 'small world' property allows for the most efficient
connectivity," said Dante Chialvo, a physiologist at Northwestern
University.
Other networks -- social and biochemical -- rely on the same principle.
The scientists measured the degree of correlation between activities in
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