Abstract We propose that the brain organizes according to a single principle operating at every documented scale of architecture: Scale-Recursive Non-Uniform Domain Tiling (SRNUDT). This principle has two complementary faces. First, at every level of organization, from structural protein layers to astrocyte territories to microglial patrol domains to cortical regions, the system tiles sovereign domains with connected borders, achieving complete coverage with no gaps and no redundancy. Second, the boundaries between categories at every level are continuous gradients rather than discrete divisions, with cell types, activation states, and regional identities existing as attractor points on continuous landscapes rather than as fixed categories. The pattern repeats at each scale but never identically; each repetition carries a generative remainder (variation, asymmetry, inexactness) that prevents crystallization and enables emergence. We synthesize evidence from six independent lines of neuroscience research: astrocyte territorial tiling, microglial patrol domains, the neuron-glia identity continuum, regional crystallization via morphogen gradients, energy metabolism heterogeneity, and assembly dynamics. We examine five categories of contradictory evidence and demonstrate that each, when viewed through the SRNUDT lens, is a consequence of the principle’s non-uniformity rather than a refutation. We propose testable predictions including that mesoscale brain organization will exhibit both sovereign domain tiling and continuous categorical boundaries. The observations synthesized here belong to the scientists who made them. The unification is ours.
Bradley Ploof (Sat,) studied this question.