{
  "abstract": "The brain contains an astronomical number of neurons, but it is their collective activity that underlies brain function. The number of degrees of freedom that this activity explores (its dimensionality) is therefore a fundamental signature of neural dynamics. However, it is not known what controls dimensionality in the biological brain. Through analysis of high-density Neuropixels recordings, here, we argue that areas across the mouse cortex predominantly operate in a sensitive regime that gives recurrent synaptic networks a strong role in regulating dimensionality. This control is expressed across time, as cortical activity transitions among states with different dimensionalities. Moreover, this control is mediated through highly tractable features of synaptic networks (network motifs). Analyzing a massive synaptic physiology dataset, we find that motifs impacting dimensionality are prevalent in both mouse and human brains. Thus, local circuitry scales up systematically to help control the degrees of freedom that brain networks may explore and exploit.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany. d.dahmen@fz-juelich.de",
    "Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6 and INM-0) and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany",
    "Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. stefano.recanatesi@gmail.com",
    "University of Washington Computational Neuroscience Center, Department of Applied Mathematics, and Swartz Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Seattle, WA, USA. stefano.recanatesi@gmail.com",
    "University of Washington Center for Computational Neuroscience and Swartz Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Seattle, WA, USA",
    "Allen Institute, Seattle, WA, USA",
    "School of Life Sciences and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China",
    "Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA",
    "Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, MA, USA",
    "Bioelectronics (IBI-3), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany",
    "Systems Neurophysiology, Institute of Zoology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany",
    "Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany",
    "Department of Physics, Faculty 1, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany",
    "Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany",
    "University of Washington Computational Neuroscience Center, Department of Applied Mathematics, and Swartz Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Seattle, WA, USA"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 11,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "David Dahmen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7664-916X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Stefano Recanatesi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3576-9261"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Xiaoxuan Jia",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5484-9331"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        7,
        8
      ],
      "name": "Gabriel Koch Ocker",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9627-9576"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9,
        10,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Nilufar Lahiji"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9,
        11,
        10,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Simon Musall",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9461-1042"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Luke Campagnola",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2959-1284"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        12,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Stephanie C. Seeman",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3894-1992"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Tim Jarsky",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4399-539X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12,
        13
      ],
      "name": "Moritz Helias",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0404-8656"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        14
      ],
      "name": "Eric Shea‐Brown",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9012-1396"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6jgt35m726rtf.bib",
  "cited_by": 43,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41593-026-02395-w",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6jgt35m726rtf",
  "issns": [
    "1097-6256",
    "1546-1726"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02395-w",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
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      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural dynamics and brain function"
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  "openalex": "W3157560649",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13633124",
  "pmid": "42618754",
  "published": "2026-08-19",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6jgt35m726rtf.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:26:53Z",
      "native_id": "W3157560649",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02395-w"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Neural dynamics and brain function",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Strong and localized recurrence controls the dimensionality of neural activity across brain areas",
  "title_text": "Strong and localized recurrence controls the dimensionality of neural activity across brain areas",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T13:20:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6jgt35m726rtf",
  "venue": "Nature Neuroscience",
  "versions": []
}