Neuron PRM: A framework for constructing cortical networks

The brain's extraordinary computational power to represent and interpret complex natural environments is essentially determined by the topology and geometry of the brain's architectures. We present a framework to construct cortical networks which borrows from probabilistic roadmap methods developed for robotic motion planning. We abstract the network as a large-scale directed graph, and use L-systems and statistical data to 'grow' neurons that are morphologically indistinguishable from real neurons. We detect connections (synapses) between neurons using geometric proximity tests.