Rare long-range cortical connections enhance human information processing.

What are the key topological features of connectivity critically relevant for generating the dynamics underlying efficient cortical function? A candidate feature that has recently emerged is that the connectivity of the mammalian cortex follows an exponential distance rule, which includes a small proportion of long-range high-weight anatomical exceptions to this rule. Whole-brain modeling of large-scale human neuroimaging data in 1,003 participants offers the unique opportunity to create two models, with and without long-range exceptions, and explicitly study their functional consequences. We found that rare long-range exceptions are crucial for significantly improving information processing.