Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41564127›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026

Quantifying the compressibility of the human brain.

Nicholas J Weaver, Joshua Faskowitz, Richard F Betzel, Christopher W Lynn

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Nicholas J WeaverDepartment of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.ORCID 0009-0008-3703-5772
Joshua FaskowitzDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.ORCID 0000-0003-1814-7206
Richard F BetzelDepartment of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
Christopher W LynnDepartment of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.ORCID 0000-0002-6487-2671

Funding

Neuronal and Network Mechanisms of Electrocortical StimulationRF1NS125026 · NINDS · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY AT CHICAGO · PI SLUTZKY, MARC W. · 2023 to 2023
$4.2M
Dynamic approaches to understanding social cognitive aging: A social network neuroscience approachR01AG075044 · NIA · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · PI Richard F Betzel, Anne Catherine Krendl · 2022 to 2026
$2.7M
Neuronal and Network Mechanisms of Electrocortical StimulationR01NS125026 · NINDS · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · PI Marc W. Slutzky · 2026 to 2026
$1.2M
Minimax entropy: Optimal statistical models for neural activity and chromatin structureR35GM160188 · NIGMS · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI Christopher Lynn · 2025 to 2026
$923k
HHS | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) R35GM160188HHS | NIH | National Institute on Aging (NIA) AG075044HHS | NIH | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) NS125026National Science Foundation (NSF) 2023985NIA NIH HHS R01 AG075044NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM160188NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS125026NINDS NIH HHS RF1 NS125026
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In the human brain, the allowed patterns of activity are constrained by the correlations between brain regions. Yet it remains unclear which correlations-and how many-are needed to predict large-scale neural activity. Here, we present an information-theoretic framework to identify the most important correlations, which provide the most accurate predictions of neural states. Applying our framework to cortical activity in humans, we find that the vast majority of variance in activity is explained by a small number of correlations. This means that the brain is highly compressible: Only a sparse network of correlations is needed to predict large-scale activity. We find that this compressibility is strikingly consistent across different individuals and cognitive tasks and that, counterintuitively, the most important correlations are not necessarily the strongest. Together, these results suggest that nearly all correlations are not needed to predict neural activity, and we provide the tools to uncover the key correlations that are.

Indexed as

BrainModels, NeurologicalBrain MappingHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingNerve NetfMRIinformation theoryminimax entropynetwork neurosciencestatistical physics

Identifiers

PMID41564127
PMCPMC12846795

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.