32,826 research outputs found
The specificity and robustness of long-distance connections in weighted, interareal connectomes
Brain areas' functional repertoires are shaped by their incoming and outgoing
structural connections. In empirically measured networks, most connections are
short, reflecting spatial and energetic constraints. Nonetheless, a small
number of connections span long distances, consistent with the notion that the
functionality of these connections must outweigh their cost. While the precise
function of these long-distance connections is not known, the leading
hypothesis is that they act to reduce the topological distance between brain
areas and facilitate efficient interareal communication. However, this
hypothesis implies a non-specificity of long-distance connections that we
contend is unlikely. Instead, we propose that long-distance connections serve
to diversify brain areas' inputs and outputs, thereby promoting complex
dynamics. Through analysis of five interareal network datasets, we show that
long-distance connections play only minor roles in reducing average interareal
topological distance. In contrast, areas' long-distance and short-range
neighbors exhibit marked differences in their connectivity profiles, suggesting
that long-distance connections enhance dissimilarity between regional inputs
and outputs. Next, we show that -- in isolation -- areas' long-distance
connectivity profiles exhibit non-random levels of similarity, suggesting that
the communication pathways formed by long connections exhibit redundancies that
may serve to promote robustness. Finally, we use a linearization of
Wilson-Cowan dynamics to simulate the covariance structure of neural activity
and show that in the absence of long-distance connections, a common measure of
functional diversity decreases. Collectively, our findings suggest that
long-distance connections are necessary for supporting diverse and complex
brain dynamics.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Analyzing overlapping communities in networks using link communities
One way to analyze the structure of a network is to identify its communities, groups of related nodes that are more likely to connect to one another than to nodes outside the community. Commonly used algorithms for obtaining a network’s communities rely on clustering of the network’s nodes into a community structure that maximizes an appropriate objective function. However, defining communities as a partition of a network’s nodes, and thus stipulating that each node belongs to exactly one community, precludes the detection of overlapping communities that may exist in the network. Here we show that by defining communities as partition of a network’s links, and thus allowing individual nodes to appear in multiple communities, we can quantify the extent to which each pair of communities in a network overlaps. We define two measures of community overlap and apply them to the community structure of five networks from different disciplines. In every case, we note that there are many pairs of communities that share a significant number of nodes. This highlights a major advantage of using link partitioning, as opposed to node partitioning, when seeking to understand the community structure of a network. We also observe significant differences between overlap statistics in real-world networks as compared with randomly-generated null models. By virtue of their contexts, we expect many naturally-occurring networks to have very densely overlapping communities. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an understanding of how to use community overlap calculations to draw conclusions about the underlying structure of a network
Language control is not a one-size-fits-all languages process: Evidence from simultaneous interpretation students and the n-2 repetition cost
Simultaneous interpretation is an impressive cognitive feat which necessitates the simultaneous use of two languages and therefore begs the question: how is language management accomplished during interpretation? One possibility is that both languages are maintained active and inhibitory control is reduced. To examine whether inhibitory control is reduced after experience with interpretation, students with varying experience were assessed on a three language switching paradigm. This paradigm provides an empirical measure of the inhibition applied to abandoned languages, the n-2 repetition cost. The groups showed different patterns of n-2 repetition costs across the three languages. These differences, however, were not connected to experience with interpretation. Instead, they may be due to other language characteristics. Specifically, the L2 n-2 repetition cost negatively correlated with self-rated oral L2 proficiency, suggesting that language proficiency may affect the use of inhibitory control. The differences seen in the L1 n-2 repetition cost, alternatively, may be due to the differing predominant interactional contexts of the groups. These results suggest that language control may be more complex than previously thought, with different mechanisms used for different languages. Further, these data represent the first use of the n-2 repetition cost as a measure to compare language control between groups
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