CONNECTOME (2019) - 2. view

3D model of a mouse’s brain network 

With over 100 billion nodes, the human brain is perhaps the most complex network known to science. Neuroscientists call whole brain networks “the connectome,” and until recently they were unmappable. Yet given the important role the connectome plays in brain function and consciousness, Barabási has had a long-standing interest in trying to understand its structure. 

The BarabásiLab’s first attempt to visualize the structure of the brain took form as a 3D rendition of the connectome of the mouse brain. The configuration is based on data collected over the course of a multi-year project at the Allen Institute, a bioscience research center in Seattle. The Mouse Connectome was laid out using the same algorithm that generated The Flavor Network and the other data sculptures in the exhibit. Its arrangement unveils the exceptional complexity of the brain’s wiring patterns.