English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Spatially-embedded complex networks, such as nervous systems, the Internetand transportation networks, generally have non-trivial topological patterns ofconnections combined with nearly minimal wiring costs. However the growth rulesshaping these economical trade-offs between cost and topology are not wellunderstood. Here we study the cellular nervous system of the nematode worm C.elegans, together with information on the birth times of neurons and on theirspatial locations. We find that the growth of this network undergoes atransition from an accelerated to a constant increase in the number of links(synaptic connections) as a function of the number of nodes (neurons). The timeof this phase transition coincides closely with the observed moment ofhatching, when development switches metamorphically from oval to larval stages.We use graph analysis and generative modelling to show that the transitionbetween different growth regimes, as well as its coincidence with the moment ofhatching, can be explained by a dynamic economical model which incorporates atrade-off between topology and cost that is continuously negotiated andre-negotiated over developmental time. As the body of the animal progressivelyelongates, the cost of longer distance connections is increasingly penalised.This growth process regenerates many aspects of the adult nervous system'sorganization, including the neuronal membership of anatomically pre-definedganglia. We expect that similar economical principles can be found in thedevelopment of other biological or man-made spatially-embedded complex systems.

Phase transition in the economically modeled growth of a cellular nervous system