Identifying controlling nodes in neuronal networks in different scales

Abstract

Recent studies have detected hubs in neuronal networks using degree, betweenness centrality, motif and synchronization and revealed the importance of hubs in their structural and functional roles. In addition, the analysis of complex networks in different scales are widely used in physics community. This can provide detailed insights into the intrinsic properties of networks. In this study, we focus on the identification of controlling regions in cortical networks of cats' brain in microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic scales, based on single-objective evolutionary computation methods. The problem is investigated by considering two measures of controllability separately. The impact of the number of driver nodes on controllability is revealed and the properties of controlling nodes are shown in a statistical way. Our results show that the statistical properties of the controlling nodes display a concave or convex shape with an increase of the allowed number of controlling nodes, revealing a transition in choosing driver nodes from the areas with a large degree to the areas with a low degree. Interestingly, the community Auditory in cats' brain, which has sparse connections with other communities, plays an important role in controlling the neuronal networks. © 2012 Tang et al.