Scaling up the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans: is one ape equal to 33 million worms?

Abstract

Although vastly different, both the mammalian brain and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans' nervous system must contribute critically to assure survival. Two quantitative conditions which place bounds on networks for connectedness and stability are tested on the published neural network of C. elegans and fit. Consideration of networks scaled up to mammalian size and confined between these bounds suggests that perhaps, the entire spectrum of brain size may be built between these bounds. Further consequences of increasing brain size relate to the trade-off between complexity, providing internal resistance to individual damage, and redundancy of population, as survival mechanisms.