| Between 1899 and 1904, in the masterpiece Textura del sistema nervioso del hombre y de los vertebrados (published in separated folded sheets during these years), S. Ramón y Cajal established the linchpin of modern neuroscience. Among its capital contributions, he stated the law of maximum economy in space, time and inter-connective matter, that explicitly hypothesizes about an optimization of the structure and function of the nervous systems during evolution, reflected in an economical principle for informational driving processes in neuronal circuitries. This fascinating elucidation of the complex structure of nervous systems, has been however very difficult to quantify with real data. The topological mapping of each one of the neurons of a vertebrate's brain is still out of nowadays technical possibilities. However, it exists an invertebrate organism for which the complete neuronal layout is known, the nematode C. elegans. The current computational capabilities and the disposal of such a connectivity data set allow us to explore the conjecture of S. Ramón y Cajal about the "wiring economy principle". |
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