Over the last decade, the study of complex networks has expanded across diverse
scientific fields. Increasingly, science is concerned with the structure, behavior, and evolution of
complex systems ranging from cells to ecosystems. Modern network approaches are beginning to reveal
fundamental principles of brain architecture and function, and in Networks of the Brain, Olaf Sporns
describes how the integrative nature of brain function can be illuminated from a complex network
perspective. Highlighting the many emerging points of contact between neuroscience and network
science, the book serves to introduce network theory to neuroscientists and neuroscience to those
working on theoretical network models. Brain networks span the microscale of individual cells and
synapses and the macroscale of cognitive systems and embodied cognition. Sporns emphasizes how
networks connect levels of organization in the brain and how they link structure to function. In
order to keep the book accessible and focused on the relevance to neuroscience of network
approaches, he offers an informal and nonmathematical treatment of the subject. After describing the
basic concepts of network theory and the fundamentals of brain connectivity, Sporns discusses how
network approaches can reveal principles of brain architecture. He describes new links between
network anatomy and function and investigates how networks shape complex brain dynamics and enable
adaptive neural computation. The book documents the rapid pace of discovery and innovation while
tracing the historical roots of the field. The study of brain connectivity has already opened new
avenues of study in neuroscience. Networks of the Brain offers a synthesis of the sciences of
complex networks and the brain that will be an essential foundation for future research.