Placement and routing optimization in the brain

Given that brains and computers are similar in many respects, can vast experience in computer engineering help us understand brain design? Here we apply tools developed for physical design of computer chips to understand the layout of the nervous system. Starting with the known wiring diagram of the C. elegans nervous system, we predict the locations of synapses and extent of neurons that minimize the total wiring length. Comparing predicted locations of C. elegans neuronal cell bodies with the actual locations, we find reasonable agreement. Therefore, minimization of wiring length is an important consideration both in chip design and brain architecture. Furthermore, wire length minimization can be used to infer functional roles of neuronal components. Copyright 2006 ACM