Form and function in systems neuroscience
Open accessAbstract
'Form follows function' is an architectural philosophy attributed to the great American architect Louis Sullivan, and later taken up by the Bauhaus movement. It stresses that the form of a building should reflect its function. Neuroscientists have used the converse of this dictum to learn the functions of neural circuits, believing that if we study neural architecture, it will lead us to an understanding of how neural systems function. New tools for studying the structure of neural circuits are being developed, so it is important to discuss what the old techniques have taught us about how to derive function from the form of a neural circuit.
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The structure (or geometry) of an artifact is determined by the function it is meant to serve.
“'Form follows function' is an influential design principle often followed by architects; the structure (or geometry) of an artifact is determined by the function it is meant to serve [162][163][164] .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [163]
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From cognitive maps to spatial schemas
Farzanfar, D., Spiers, H. J., Moscovitch, M., & Rosenbaum, R. S. (2023) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-022-00655-9 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kristan, W. B., & Katz, P.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Georgia State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kristan, William B.
- Katz, Paul
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-10
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 19
- Pages
- R828-R831
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2024588144
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 0.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 2517 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Undergraduate Neuroscience Education and Research
- Keywords
- neural circuits, neural architecture, form and function, circuit structure, circuit function, systems neuroscience, neural circuit mapping
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Nerve Net, Neurosciences, Systems Theory
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