ConceptGraph

The Brain as a Graph

If we step back, we find that there is only one structure that could possibly organize this flood of signals into thought. And that's a mathematical graph. A graph is a set of nodes connected by edges. In the brain, the nodes are clusters of neurons and the edges are the many synapses linking them. The graph may sound like a mathematical abstraction, but in reality it's the most natural explanation. It's the only way the brain can represent what we so clearly observe in everyday human behavior.

Every observation about human behavior, every constraint of biology, and every comparison with AI leads us to the same conclusion. The brain must be a graph, and not just any graph, but a richly structured dynamic graph of neuron clusters. It's the only possible model of knowledge in the human brain.

• Source: 2025-08-26 From Dogs to Consciousness: Why Everything is in a Graph

// The graph becomes a rectangular array of neurons. Each row in the graph represents a single node. Across the top of the array is a row of control neurons. Firing one of these enables the relationship represented by the column below it. The graph is initialized with a lot of what I call static framework neurons. These are necessary to the operation of the graph, but are independent of the information within the graph. Interestingly, these synapses are nearly all either vertical or horizontal in the graph array."

(2019-03-14 Brain Simulator II: Representing Knowledge in Neurons)