Message interaction dynamics covary with brain volume across mammalian connectomes

Abstract

Brain network communication models typically assume that signals propagate independently, despite the high network density and small diameter of mammalian connectomes, where interactions among simultaneously propagating messages are likely. We investigate these interactions using the copy-spread-annihilate (CSA) model, a synchronous Markovian message-passing process in which messages spread through the binarized network while undergoing collision-dependent deletion. Simulations on a large comparative dataset of mammalian connectomes show that CSA dynamics produce robust positively-skewed lognormal distributions of message survival across species. Despite using only binary network topology without spatial embedding, message survival accounts for over half of the variance in brain volume across mammal species and outperforms a broad range of established graph-theoretic measures and an alternative communication model with interacting messages. Degree-preserving switch randomization weakens this relationship, indicating that higher-order structural organization contributes to the observed scaling law. We describe a mechanistic explanation of model dynamics that suggests message creation differences among networks shapes message survival. Together, these findings suggest that interactions among propagating messages constitute an important and underexplored determinant of communication dynamics in mammalian brain networks.