How does the organization of neural information processing enable humans’ sophisticated cognition? Here we decompose functional interactions between brain regions into synergistic and redundant components, revealing their distinct information-processing roles. Combining functional and structural neuroimaging with meta-analytic results, we demonstrate that redundant interactions are predominantly associated with structurally coupled, modular sensorimotor processing. Synergistic interactions instead support integrative processes and complex cognition across higher-order brain networks. The human brain leverages synergistic information to a greater extent than nonhuman primates, with high-synergy association cortices exhibiting the highest degree of evolutionary cortical expansion. Synaptic density mapping from positron emission tomography and convergent molecular and metabolic evidence demonstrate that synergistic interactions are supported by receptor diversity and human-accelerated genes underpinning synaptic function. This information-resolved approach provides analytic tools to disentangle information integration from coupling, enabling richer, more accurate interpretations of functional connectivity, and illuminating how the human neurocognitive architecture navigates the trade-off between robustness and integration.

神经信息处理的组织如何实现人类复杂的认知？在这里，我们将大脑区域之间的功能相互作用分解为协同和冗余组件，揭示它们独特的信息处理作用。将功能和结构神经影像与荟萃分析结果相结合，我们证明冗余相互作用主要与结构耦合的模块化感觉运动处理相关。相反，协同相互作用支持跨高阶大脑网络的整合过程和复杂认知。人类大脑比非人类灵长类动物更大程度地利用协同信息，高协同关联皮层表现出最高程度的进化皮层扩张。正电子发射断层扫描的突触密度图以及聚合的分子和代谢证据表明，协同相互作用得到了受体多样性和支撑突触功能的人类加速基因的支持。这种信息解析方法提供了分析工具，可以将信息集成与耦合分开，从而能够对功能连接进行更丰富、更准确的解释，并阐明人类神经认知架构如何在鲁棒性和集成之间进行权衡。