Using Eigenvalues to Classify Neuronal Networks
Paulina Volosov
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Mathematics
Hillsdale College
When neuroscientists reconstruct brain networks, they often do not know how to index the neurons in order reveal the underlying structure of the connections between neurons. How can a mathematician help in this case? It turns out that by studying the eigenvalues of the connectivity matrix, we can in fact derive a metric that classifies small-world networks using information from the spectrum. This is yet one more case in which we see the beauty and usefulness of eigenvalues.