Mammalian brain was built on the principle of the Internet

The researchers found that the pleasure center in the mice is not organized in a hierarchical principle of "top-down", as many experts, and on the basis of an extensive network, reminiscent of the Internet. The work of scientists published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and a brief description leads portal BBC News.

To date, scientists do not know exactly how to arrange a "management" in the brain of mammals, including man. According to the most popular hypothesis, the brain is organized by a clear hierarchical principle, where "control" signals from the neurons of the neocortex - the evolutionary structure of the young - come to the neurons of the older areas of the brain.Recently, however, as the science of the brain, many experts are inclined to the view that neurons interact not only and not vertically as horizontally.

The creators of the works studied the organization of the pleasure center in mice - this term involve several structures (mainly nucleus accumbens), which play an important role in obtaining pleasure, but also the development of sympathy and aggression. Using special dyes, scientists could follow, where to some neurons received signal, and where he had gone from them. In total, the researchers were able to look to the four "steps" (one "step" - a connection between two individual neurons).

 It turned out that it is built on the principle, the principle of the device resembles the Internet: each neuron communicates with many other neurons, and not only with the "head" and "subordinate". Also, scientists have shown that the trajectory of travel of nerve signals are loops: one and the same signal can be several times to return to the starting point.

The researchers hope that their findings, and to use the experimental method can assist in creating a global map the hierarchy of the brain. The authors compare a hypothetical map with the draft human genome: knowledge of the complete sequence of human DNA did not allow professionals to learn all about the biochemistry of people, but it has become a prerequisite for further progress. The authors believe that the global hierarchical map takes the same semantic niche.

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