NACS 645: Brain architecture

Connectivity, network organization, and constraints on computation.

Course material for NACS 645: Introduction to Cognitive Science (Fall 2025) at the University of Maryland. Sessions covered: Brain architecture 1 (connections), Brain architecture 3 (representations).

Required readings:

  • Bullmore, E., & Sporns, O. (2012). The economy of brain network organization. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(5), 336-349.
  • Reimann, M. W., Nolte, M., Scolamiero, M., Turner, K., Perin, R., Chindemi, G., … & Markram, H. (2017). Cliques of neurons bound into cavities provide a missing link between structure and function. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 11, 48.
  • Brette, R. (2019). Is coding a relevant metaphor for the brain?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42, e215.
  • Kriegeskorte, N., & Diedrichsen, J. (2019). Peeling the onion of brain representations. Annual review of neuroscience, 42(1), 407-432.

The material is provided below as a single PDF.

Open or download the course PDF