How does the brain build its own maps, and what constrains the patterns that evolution can produce? Computational neuroscientist Stuart Wilson argues that cortical arealization emerges from self-organizing processes operating within the design space defined by reaction-diffusion dynamics , not from a genetic blueprint that specifies each area independently. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Stuart Wilson joins Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott to discuss how self-organization and natural selection interact to produce the diverse cortical maps observed across mammalian species. Drawing on Stuart Kauffman's framework and Alan Turing's reaction-diffusion mathematics, Wilson proposes that gene expression gradients across the developing cortex are themselves generated by self-organizing processes constrained by boun ...