Science offers a new idea of the brain: it's all about connectivity

It's not the individual brain regions that matter, but the connections between them: neuroscientists have come up with a new model
of how the brain works.
This new perspective allows us to better understand why and how
brain differences between individuals.

Our right brain hemisphere is responsible for creativity, and our left brain is responsible for rational thinking
.
This is a classic idea that stems from a classic view of how our brains work, namely that there are several areas of our brain that all have specific functions
.
Although this "modular" view of the brain has been superseded, it can still be found in
many textbooks.

However, neuroscientists Stephanie Forkel at the University of Radeburg and Michel Thiebaut de Schotten of the University of Bordeaux propose that we should look at brain function
differently.
Brain function is not limited to individual brain regions, but arises from exchanges
between these regions.

Important for both speaking and reading

Forkel said: "Take language, for example
.
Here, the result is more important
than the sum of the parts.
In order to communicate, you need to understand very quickly what is being said in a given context, taking into account the emotional intentions
that depend on who you are speaking.
If the brain worked in a modular way, it would not be possible for us to do all these different linguistic calculations
in such a short period of time.
”

Neuroscientists say connections can amplify or decrease brain signals and determine brain structure and function
.
In cognitive tasks, there is a strong relationship
between the patterns of connections in brain regions and their activity.
Based on brain connections, it is possible to predict where a certain function in the brain will appear
.
Fakker: "If you look at children's brains before they can read and write, you'll see that white matter made up of neural pathways is already connected to the 'classic' reading zone
.
"

More insights into brain differences

An important flaw in the classical view of the modular brain is that it does not account for the differences between individuals
.
"Everyone's brain is different, unlike the brains
in textbooks we all know.
This is what I realized while studying the postmortem brain
.
Neuroimaging studies, in most cases, conform all participants' brains to one standard brain, resulting in a lack
of insight into the differences between people.
This is a big topic
in neuroscience right now.
”

With the new web-based approach, scientists can simulate changes between our brains, for example, in
an evolutionary perspective.
"If you look at white matter, we see that the older parts of our brains ('reptile' brains) are more or less the same
.
The parts that have evolved recently have changed even more
between us.
This puts brain evolution in
a new framework.
”

In addition, new ways to study brain function could have a huge impact
on clinical treatment.
"Some patients have brain lesions that don't have any symptoms
that you might expect.
In one study, we looked at how lesions affect the entire brain network, and we can show that we can use network patterns to predict what symptoms a patient has, or what symptoms
they will have a year later.
”

Professional networking

According to the research team, in order to update the work with this new model, researchers will have to create specialized networks to integrate multiple areas
of neuroscience research.
This will push the current boundaries and lead to advanced neuroimaging methods, personalized anatomical models and significant clinical implications
.