Review

[ Networks of the Brain]’s most important contribution lies in connecting neuroscience with the science of networks…. This is where we should be looking for solutions to the great mysteries of life and the mind.

(American Scientist)

Networks of the Brain is a unique resource. It defines the nature and scope of one of the newest and most exciting research programs in cognitive neuroscience.

(Minds & Machines)

If you have not discovered this book yet, take a look. Highly recommended. Fascinating.

(Stan Wasserman Complexity and Social Networks Blog)

In Networks of the Brain, Olaf Sporns synthesizes two of the most exciting topics in science today and links the latest breakthroughs to their deep historical roots. A graceful, authoritative, and fascinating book.

(Steven Strogatz, Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, and author of Sync)

Sporns’s book is a very important and scholarly contribution to our understanding of brain function. It offers a view of neuroscience that is breathtakingly broad and provides just the sort of perspective needed if we are to integrate knowledge of form cells, social groups, and everything in between. It lays out the evidence for a real paradigm shift in how we must pursue our understanding of the brain’s workings.

(Marcus Raichle, Professor of Radiology, Neurology, Neurobiology and Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis)

This excellent book instills a sense of excitement about understanding the brain in terms of network theory. Despite the fact it does not contain a single equation, one comes away from Sporns’s book with a sense of insight and perspective rarely attained by treatments of this sort. In short, this is a resource of conceptual treasures for anyone interested in a modern understanding of the brain. It will be appreciated by students and seasoned academics alike.

(Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London)

Written engagingly by a master at the top of his game, Sporns’s book unites neural structure, function, connectivity, and dynamics into a single, quantitative, and coherent framework — brain network science that goes a long way toward understanding the dynamic patterns of the brain that underlie behavior and cognition. Essential for the transdisciplinary neuroscientist of the future.

(J.A. Scott Kelso, author of Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior and The Complementary Nature)

About the Author

Olaf Sporns is Provost Professor and Head of the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He is the author of Networks of the Brain (MIT Press, 2010).

Contents

۱ Introduction: Why Networks?
۲ Network Measures and Architectures
۳ Brain Networks: Structure and Dynamics
۴ A Network Perspective on Neuroanatomy
۵ Mapping Cells, Circuits, and Systems
۶ The Brain’s Small World: Motifs, Modules, and Hubs
۷ Economy, Efficiency, and Evolution
۸ Dynamic Patterns in Spontaneous Neural Activity
۹ Networks for Cognition
۱۰ Brain Network Disease
۱۱ Network Growth and Development
۱۲ Dynamics: Stability and Diversity
۱۳ Neural Complexity
۱۴ Brain and Body