Used in many different disciplines (e.g., computer science, geography, town planning), but not found in the Oxford english dictionary, it is derived from the Greek word hodos meaning a ‘way’, and in general can be defined as the science of studying pathways between structures. In the present instance, it refers to pathways between neuroanatomical structures such a brain cells identified by tracer techniques. It was also a term used by Kurt Lewin (1936) in his book Principles of topological psychology, New York: McGraw-Hill, with his invention of hodological space (a geometrical space in which people are attracted to or repulsed by other). In philosophy, it denotes the study of interconnected ideas.
See Cerebellum and basal ganglia, Dynamic field theory, Motor cortex