Humans

Does the Human Brain Look Like the Universe?

November 27, 2020December 1, 2020 by Aruzhan Nuraly

Italian scientists compared the structure of the neural networks of the human brain with the network of galaxies in the Universe and found they have many common features. Despite the difference in scale, the structures of the Universe and the brain are surprisingly similar to each other, and scientists suggested that completely different physical processes can lead to the formation of very similar complex structures.

The human brain and the universe are two of the most complex natural systems. Astrophysicist Franco Vazza from the University of Bologna and Alberto Feletti, a neurosurgeon from the University of Verona, suggested that despite the huge difference in scale — more than 27 orders of magnitude — the physical processes that led to the structuring of matter in these systems acted according to the same laws. As a result, structures with the same levels of complexity and self-organization were formed.

For example, the human brain works thanks to its component network of almost 70 billion neurons. The universe, as far as we know, has at least 100 billion galaxies. In each of these systems, individual components are assembled together in a complex network, which is a kind of long threads and nodes connecting them. Recall images of the Universe and the brain – they have something similar. In each system, these “threads” make up only about 30% of the mass, and 70% of the mass is accounted for by components that seem to be passive: the cerebrospinal fluid and the dark energy of the Universe.

The researchers also compared how galaxies in the Universe and brain regions are formed. “We calculated the spectral density of both systems. This method is often used in cosmology to study the spatial distribution of galaxies, says Franco Vazza, an astrophysicist At the University of Bologna, who worked on the study published in the journal Frontiers of Physics, along with Alberto Feletti, a neurosurgeon at the University of Verona. “The analysis showed that the fluctuations within the neural network of the cerebellum resemble the progression of the distribution of matter in the cosmic web, only, of course, on a completely different scale: if in the first case it is 1 micrometer – 0.1 millimeters, in the second – from 5 million to 500 million light years”.

Researchers have also investigated the ways in which the networks of neutrons and galaxies connect – again finding a noticeable similarity. To do this, they compared the average number of connections between each of the nodes and how they are grouped. “Once again, the structural parameters revealed unexpected levels of agreement. It is likely that communication within these two networks develops along similar physical principles, despite the striking and obvious difference between the physical forces that regulate galaxies and neurons,” Feletti says.

These common features formed the basis of the analysis. Scientists were interested in the extent to which the human brain and the universe can be similar to each other. To find the answer to this question, they modeled a network of galaxies and a network of cortical neurons, and then superimposed them on each other. The goal was to see how the fluctuations (vibrations) of the substance are distributed in such different proportions.

Scientists hope that their proposed method will find application in both cosmology and neurosurgery and will allow us to better understand the directional dynamics underlying the temporal evolution of both the brain and the Universe.