Chapter 4 · 19 min

Circuits and an Organized Brain

Chapter 4 of How the Brain Works: Circuits and an Organized Brain.

How the Brain Works | Ch 4 Part 1/2: Circuits and an Organized Brain ↗How the Brain Works | Ch 4 Part 2/2: Circuits and an Organized Brain ↗

Visual credits

12 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Human brain, sagittal section 1

    Themium

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Thomas Willis, Cerebri anatome, Figure I (1664)

    Thomas Willis; illustration credited in the 1664 preface to Christopher Wren; Wellcome Collection scan

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Midline sagittal view of the brainstem and cerebellum - Arbor vitae

    Christian Brogna, José Pedro Lavrador, Hussein Shaaban Kandeel, Ahmad Beyh, Eduardo C. Ribas, Francesco Vergani & Christos M. Tolias

  • Human brain left midsagitttal view closeup description 2

    John A Beal, PhD Dep't. of Cellular Biology & Anatomy, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Human Brodmann cortical fields, 1909

    Korbinian Brodmann

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Gray anatomy plate752, exposed association fibres

    Henry Vandyke Carter; Henry Gray, revised by Warren H. Lewis

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Hippocampus

    Images are generated by Life Science Databases(LSDB).

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Ran et al. 2022, Figure 1: Tuning of NTS neurons to gut and upper airway stimuli

    Chen Ran, Jack C. Boettcher, Judith A. Kaye, Catherine E. Gallori and Stephen D. Liberles

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Dti-tractography-normal-corpus-callosum

    TAbildskov

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Maier-Hein 2017 Figure 5, complete standalone figure artwork

    Klaus H. Maier-Hein and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Gordon et al. 2023, Figure 1: Precision functional mapping of primary motor cortex

    Evan M. Gordon, Roselyne J. Chauvin, Andrew N. Van and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • IBL brain-wide recordings, Figure2

    International Brain Laboratory and named coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. Nature paper ↗
  2. Primary record and DOI ↗
  3. Dichter et al. human vocal-pitch recording and stimulation ↗
  4. Schmitt et al. 2017 ↗
  5. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11846 ↗
  6. Azevedo et al. 2009 ↗
  7. Schmahmann and Sherman 1998 ↗
  8. Zeng et al., Science, 26 October 2018 ↗
  9. Kupari et al. 2019 ↗
  10. Primary paper ↗
  11. Maier-Hein et al. 2017 ↗
  12. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3174820/ ↗
  13. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05964-2 ↗
  14. Lavenex and Amaral 2000 ↗
  15. 2023 primary human study ↗
  16. Source page and reuse statement ↗
  17. Version 1 README, p. 1 ↗
  18. Digitized book, 548 images ↗
  19. Journey of Sound, NIH/NIDCD ↗
  20. How Does the Human Body Produce Voice and Speech?, NIH ↗
  21. Brain-wide map, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre ↗
  22. Brainwide Map and Beyond, Gaëlle Chapuis / NeuroFM Workshop ↗
  23. Willis historical context ↗
  24. https://download.alleninstitute.org/informatics-archive/allen_human_reference_atlas_3d_2020/version_1/README.pdf): ↗
  25. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kv8rzxwe): ↗
  26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF8rlKuSoFM): ↗
  27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETvTSwEgJRM): ↗
  28. https://royalsociety.org/blog/2022/01/circle-of-willis/): ↗
  29. NIDCD hearing account ↗
  30. UT Houston auditory pathways, section 13.1 ↗
  31. García-Gomar et al. human subcortical MRI atlas ↗
  32. Simonyan and Horwitz 2011 ↗
  33. Primary text ↗
  34. corticofugal gating in anesthetized guinea pigs ↗
  35. Sherman 2007 ↗
  36. Hwang et al. 2017 ↗
  37. Rikhye et al. 2018 ↗
  38. Mukherjee et al. 2021 ↗
  39. Scott, Mukherjee, Nassar and Halassa 2024 ↗
  40. abstract ↗
  41. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr3675 ↗
  42. AAAS publisher release ↗
  43. Purves, Circuits within the Basal Ganglia System ↗
  44. 2023 beginners review ↗
  45. Calabresi et al. 2014 ↗
  46. PMC13323681 ↗
  47. Schmahmann's 2019 review ↗
  48. 2021 update ↗
  49. Herculano-Houzel's 2010 comparative analysis ↗
  50. Tanaka et al. 2020 ↗
  51. Hull 2020, eLife 9:e54073 ↗
  52. 2024 Cerebral Cortex study, bhae382 ↗
  53. Prescott and Liberles 2022, *Internal senses of the vagus nerve* ↗
  54. full-text route ↗
  55. Min et al. 2019 ↗
  56. 2019 autonomic critique ↗
  57. Bai et al. 2019, genetic identification of feeding-related vagal sensory neurons ↗
  58. Chen et al. 2015 ↗
  59. 2024 arcuate review ↗
  60. *Hunger from within* 2021 ↗
  61. Ran et al. 2022, *A brainstem map for visceral sensations* ↗
  62. Craig 2002 ↗
  63. 2003 article ↗
  64. Del Negro, Funk and Feldman 2018 ↗
  65. PubMed with figures ↗
  66. *Respiratory rhythm: an emergent network property?* ↗
  67. Vann et al. 2018 ↗
  68. Yeo et al. 2011 ↗
  69. Logothetis et al. 2001, monkey physiology/fMRI comparison ↗
  70. IBL 2025 ↗
  71. Author-institution record ↗
  72. author-hosted primary PDF ↗
  73. Schilling et al. 2019 ↗
  74. 2019 benchmark review ↗
  75. Author release ↗
  76. Honey et al. 2009 ↗
  77. NIMH ↗
  78. S1200 release ↗
  79. Primary record ↗
  80. author-lab full text ↗
  81. published-version repository ↗
  82. IBL source-owner page ↗
  83. Lemon 2008, *Descending Pathways in Motor Control* ↗
  84. Institutional teaching copy ↗
  85. author PDF ↗
  86. institutional record ↗
  87. Muret, Makin and Diedrichsen's open review ↗
  88. *White matter connections within the central sulcus subserving the somato-cognitive action network*, Brain 2025 ↗
  89. Primary paper ↗
  90. author-lab record ↗
  91. Lavenex, Suzuki and Amaral 2004 ↗
  92. plate record ↗
  93. Project ↗
  94. dataset license discussion ↗
  95. CONP dataset ↗
  96. institutional release ↗
  97. Young Adult project ↗
  98. IBL policies ↗
  99. PMC ↗
  100. What Is Sound?, NIH4Health ↗
  101. Hearing: A Gateway to Our World, NIH ↗
  102. Data from IBL, Neurodata Without Borders ↗
  103. IBL dataset, Neuromatch ↗
  104. search hit ↗

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →