Axonal trees and cortical architecture.

In modern computer design considerable care is taken to arrange the components in such a way that wiring is kept to a minimum. Certain features of cortical structure--the mappings, stripes and blobs within areas, and areas themselves--are somewhat reminiscent of the layout of computer components, and suggest that the cortex may also be organized so as to economize on neuronal 'wiring'. One important difference between the brain and a computer is that the wiring in the brain takes the form of elaborate branched structures, namely axonal trees. In this article, it is argued that an assessment of the efficiency of cortical wiring must take account of the branching rules of these trees.