Neuroscience:Anatomical Bases of Neural Network Modeling

Neuroscience:Anatomical Bases of Neural Network Modeling

Neuronal connectivity in most neural centers is sufficiently specific to permit the disassembly of the whole network into distinct pieces (or units) of characteristic internal connectivity that are arranged into larger structures by repetition of similar architectural units. These units have been termed neuronal modules and the architectural principle is referred to by the modular architectonic principle of neural centers. This chapter discusses the modular architectonic principle as it can be recognized in various parts of the central nervous system (CNS) of the vertebrates, starting with the spinal cord. The upper diencephalic and telencephalic (striatum and putamen) part of the brainstem does not retain anything resembling the quasi-segmental arrangement of the lower neuraxis. There is, however, a small part of the diencephalon—the so called hypothalamus, that is, the ventralmost part of the diencephalon—in which the elements of the basic architectural principle of the neuraxis are preserved longitudinally oriented fiber tracts and transversally oriented (coronal) quasi-discs of neuropil.