title: Cracking the barcode of fullerene-like cortical microcolumns.
abstract: Artificial neural systems and nervous graph theoretical analysis rely upon the stance that the neural code is embodied in logic circuits, e.g., spatio-temporal sequences of ON/OFF spiking neurons. Nevertheless, this assumption does not fully explain complex brain functions. Here we show how nervous activity, other than logic circuits, could instead depend on topological transformations and symmetry constraints occurring at the micro-level of the cortical microcolumn, i.e., the embryological, anatomical and functional basic unit of the brain. Tubular microcolumns can be flattened in fullerene-like two-dimensional lattices, equipped with about 80 nodes standing for pyramidal neurons where neural computations take place. We show how the countless possible combinations of activated neurons embedded in the lattice resemble a barcode. Despite the fact that further experimental verification is required in order to validate our claim, different assemblies of firing neurons might have the appearance of diverse codes, each one responsible for a single mental activity. A two-dimensional fullerene-like lattice, grounded on simple topological changes standing for pyramidal neurons' activation, not just displays analogies with the real microcolumn's microcircuitry and the neural connectome, but also the potential for the manufacture of plastic, robust and fast artificial networks in robotic forms of full-fledged neural systems.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle, #311427 Denton, TX 76203-5017, USA; Computational Intelligence Laboratory, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V6, Canada. Electronic address: tozziarturo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tozzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, 75A Chancellor's Circle, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada; Department of Mathematics, Adıyaman University, 02040 Adıyaman, Turkey; Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Adıyaman University 02040 Adıyaman, Turkey; Computational Intelligence Laboratory, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V6, Canada. Electronic address: james.peters3@umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Actinium Chemical Research, Via Casilina 1626/A, 00133 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: ottorino.ori@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ottorino
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ori
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D037741:Fullerenes; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D037741:Fullerenes
keywords: Artificial neural system; Brain circuitry; Cortical neuron; Lattice; Neural code