Spatiotemporal pattern formation in neural systems with heterogeneous connection topologies

Biological systems like the human cortex show homogeneous connectivity, with additional strongly heterogeneous projections from one area to another. Here we report how such a dynamic system performs a macroscopically coherent pattern formation. The connection topology is used systematically as a control parameter to guide the neural system through a series of phase transitions. We discuss the example of a two-point connection, and its destabilization mechanism.