colored motifs reveal computational building blocks in the c. elegans brain彩色图案显示计算构件的秀丽隐杆线虫大脑.pdfVIP

Colored Motifs Reveal Computational Building Blocks in the C. elegans Brain 1 1,2 1,3,4,5 Jifeng Qian , Arend Hintze , Christoph Adami * 1 Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont, California, United States of America, 2 Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America, 3 Computation and Neural Systems 139-70, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America, 4 Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America, 5 BEACON Center for Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America Abstract Background: Complex networks can often be decomposed into less complex sub-networks whose structures can give hints about the functional organization of the network as a whole. However, these structural motifs can only tell one part of the functional story because in this analysis each node and edge is treated on an equal footing. In real networks, two motifs that are topologically identical but whose nodes perform very different functions will play very different roles in the network. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, we combine structural information derived from the topology of the neuronal network of the nematode C. elegans with information about the biological function of these nodes, thus coloring nodes by function. We discover that particular colorations of motifs are significantly more abundant in the worm brain than expected by chance, and have particular computational functions that emphasize the feed-forward structure of information processing in the network, while evading feedback loops. Interneurons are strongly over