Comparing the structure of the neural network in the human brain with the network of galaxies in the Universe, Italian scientists were surprised to find many similarities between them.
According to research results published in the journal Frontiers of Physics, the human brain and the Universe are the two most complex natural systems. Astrophysicists Franco Vazza from the University of Bologna and Alberto Feletti, a neurosurgeon from the University of Verona, suggest that despite large differences in scale – more than 27 orders of magnitude – physical processes resulting in the structure of matter in these systems operating under similar laws. As a result, structures are formed with the same degree of complexity and self-organization.
Structures are formed with the same degree of complexity and self-organization.
The human brain relies on a vast neural network with about 69 billion neurons. In turn, the observable universe consists of at least 100 billion galaxies. Nerve cells and galaxies, arranged as long filaments and nodes, make up only about 30% of the mass of the systems, with 70% of the passive components – water in the brain and dark energy in the universe. observable.
“We calculated the spectral densities of the two systems. Our analysis shows that the distribution of oscillations in the neural network of the cerebellum on a scale from a micrometer to 0.1 millimeter follows the same progression as the distribution of matter in the cosmic web, but of course on a larger scale, from 5 to 500 million light-years,” the scientists said.
The scientists also evaluated the parameters that characterize both the neural network and the universe network – the average number of connections at each node and the tendency of many connections to cluster at the central nodes in the network – one at a time. Furthermore, they found a surprisingly high degree of similarity.
Alberto Feletti explains: “It is likely that the connections in these networks evolved according to similar physical principles, despite the obvious and striking differences between the physical forces that govern the distribution of the particles. galaxies and neurons”.
The authors also inform the surprising degree of similarity that our analysis demonstrates that the self-organization of both complex systems is probably shaped by the same principles of network dynamics.
The scientists hope that their proposed method will have applications in both cosmology and neurosurgery, and will help to better understand the underlying driving dynamics of evolution over time. of both the brain and the universe.