Network Physiology reveals relations between network topology and physiological function

Abstract

The human organism is an integrated network where complex physiologic systems, each with its own regulatory mechanisms, continuously interact, and where failure of one system can trigger a breakdown of the entire network. Identifying and quantifying dynamical networks of diverse systems with different types of interactions is a challenge. Here, we develop a framework to probe interactions among diverse systems, and we identify a physiologic network. We find that each physiologic state is characterized by a specific network structure, demonstrating a robust interplay between network topology and function. Across physiologic states the network undergoes topological transitions associated with fast reorganization of physiologic interactions on time scales of a few minutes, indicating high network flexibility in response to perturbations. The proposed system-wide integrative approach may facilitate the development of a new field, Network Physiology.

12 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Experimental evidence for phase synchronization transitions in human cardio-respiratory system

Cited by in corpus (7)

• A k-shell decomposition method for weighted networks
• Assortativity Decreases the Robustness of Interdependent Networks
• The robustness of interdependent clustered networks
• Complex networks analysis of language complexity
• Exact eigenvalue spectrum of a class of fractal scale-free networks
• Global disorder transition in the community structure of large-q Potts systems
• Network evolution towards optimal dynamical performance