TABLE 2.

Symbols and definitions of MST metrics

Symbol	Variable name	Definition
L	Path length	L is the average shortest path length between any pair of nodes in a network.
Lf	Leaf fraction	Lf is the fraction of nodes with degree 1. Higher Lf indicates more star‐like, integrated network; low Lf on the other hand indicates greater level of segregation.
Th	Tree hierarchy index	Quantifies the trade‐off between integration in the MST and overloading. Th = 0.5 implies star‐like topology, Th = 1 signifies line‐like structure.
D max	Maximum degree	The maximum value of degree in the network.
r	Assortativity	Quantifies the tendency of nodes to link to other nodes with similar degrees.
κ	Degree divergence	Measure of the broadness of the degree distribution.