  It has been suggested that neural systems across several scales of
organization show optimal component placement, in which any spatial
rearrangement of the components would lead to an increase of total wiring.
Using extensive connectivity datasets for diverse neural networks combined with
spatial coordinates for network nodes, we applied an optimization algorithm to
the network layouts, in order to search for wire-saving component
rearrangements. We found that optimized component rearrangements could
substantially reduce total wiring length in all tested neural networks.
Specifically, total wiring among 95 primate (Macaque) cortical areas could be
decreased by 32%, and wiring of neuronal networks in the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans could be reduced by 48% on the global level, and by 49%
for neurons within frontal ganglia. Wiring length reductions were possible due
to the existence of long-distance projections in neural networks. We explored
the role of these projections by comparing the original networks with minimally
rewired networks of the same size, which possessed only the shortest possible
connections. In the minimally rewired networks, the number of processing steps
along the shortest paths between components was significantly increased
compared to the original networks. Additional benchmark comparisons also
indicated that neural networks are more similar to network layouts that
minimize the length of processing paths, rather than wiring length. These
findings suggest that neural systems are not exclusively optimized for minimal
global wiring, but for a variety of factors including the minimization of
processing steps.
