Dual computational systems in the development and evolution of mammalian brains
2026-04-22
Analyses of brain sizes across mammalian taxonomic groups reveal a consistent pattern of covariation between major brain components, including a robust inverse relationship between the limbic system and the neocortex. To find the functional basis of this relationship, we mapped the multidimensional representations of task-optimized artificial neural networks onto two-dimensional surfaces resembling the forebrain cortices. We found that networks optimized for visual, somatosensory, and auditory representations develop ordered spatiotopic maps where units draw information from localized regions of the sensory input. In contrast, networks optimized for olfactory and relational memory representations develop fractured maps with distributed patterns of information convergence. Evolutionary optimization of multimodal networks for varying task objectives results in inverse covariation between spatiotopic and disordered network components that compete for the representational space. These results suggest that the observed pattern of covariation between brain components reflects an essential computational duality in brain evolution.