On Tuesday 24 April 2018, Prof Martijn van den Heuvel of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam led a seminar on ‘Principles of Wiring of the Human Connectome’ at the Adler Museum of Medicine, Wits Faculty of Health Sciences.

The seminar was hosted by the Wits Cortex Club. Prof Van Den Heuvel took part in the Colloquium on the Brain, held by JIAS in 2017.

Summary

‘Using network science as a general framework to study the network architecture of nervous system connectivity, more and more studies have highlighted that human and animal brains display features of an efficient communication network. In my talk, I will discuss potential general principles of wiring of connectome organization. These principles are conserved across species and are argued to play a fundamental role in nervous system functioning. I will highlight findings which show that connectomes display an efficient communication structure with pronounced community organization for specialized processing, together with global short communication relays and a central “rich club core”. I will discuss the evolutionary importance of the connectome, how the macroscale connectome may be related to the microanatomy of the brain, and how general themes of wiring may play a role in the aetiology of a wide range of psychiatric disorders.’