ArticlePLoS biology2022
An estimation of the absolute number of axons indicates that human cortical areas are sparsely connected.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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19 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Lifespan development of EEG alpha and aperiodic component sources is shaped by the connectome and axonal delays.National science review · 2026Article
- Does white matter structure relate to hemispheric language lateralization? A systematic review.Brain communications · 2026Review
- Microstructural profiles of the human superficial white matter and their associations to cortical geometry and connectivity.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Artificial Intelligence Networks Combining Histopathology and Machine Learning Can Extract Axon Pathology in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Cross-region neuron co-firing mediated by ripple oscillations supports distributed working memory representations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- EEG connectivity and BDNF correlates of fast motor learning in laparoscopic surgery.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The cost of language: functionally over-dominant language circuits in the human brain may limit cognitive abilities and non-verbal executive functions.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Biological detail and graph structure in network neuroscience.Frontiers in network physiology · 2025Review
- Thalamic spindles and Up states coordinate cortical and hippocampal co-ripples in humans.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Multi-scale spiking network model of human cerebral cortex.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Integrating multimodal and multiscale connectivity blueprints of the human cerebral cortex in health and disease.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Geometric constraints on human brain function.Nature · 2023Article
- Dendritic Spines: Synaptogenesis and Synaptic Pruning for the Developmental Organization of Brain Circuits.Advances in neurobiology · 2023Article
- New insights into anatomical connectivity along the anterior-posterior axis of the human hippocampus usingeLife · 2022Article
- Widespread ripples synchronize human cortical activity during sleep, waking, and memory recall.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- The highways and byways of the brain.PLoS biology · 2022Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
The tracts between cortical areas are conceived as playing a central role in cortical information processing, but their actual numbers have never been determined in humans. Here, we estimate the absolute number of axons linking cortical areas from a whole-cortex diffusion MRI (dMRI) connectome, calibrated using the histologically measured callosal fiber density. Median connectivity is estimated as approximately 6,200 axons between cortical areas within hemisphere and approximately 1,300 axons interhemispherically, with axons connecting functionally related areas surprisingly sparse. For example, we estimate that <5% of the axons in the trunk of the arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculi connect Wernicke's and Broca's areas. These results suggest that detailed information is transmitted between cortical areas either via linkage of the dense local connections or via rare, extraordinarily privileged long-range connections.
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