Visualization of the microcirculatory hierarchy of blood vessels in the murine cortex for the four empirical networks from the Kleinfeld group (E1.1, E2.1, E3.1, and E4.1) and a synthetic network (S1.226)22. Top row) The full network shows all blood vessels in the full network. Second row) The extracted pial surface network (pial arteries, PA, and pial veins, PV) with penetrating arterioles (6.7 ± 1.6 long and 9.4 ± 5.3 short nsgm/mm2) and ascending venules (7.6 ± 3.1 long and 16.2 ± 5.2 short nsgm/mm2) labeled with black (long penetrators) and grey dots (short penetrators). Third row) Long penetrating arterioles (LPA) dive down to cortical layers V-VI depth (>825mm). Fourth row) More dense network of short penetrating arteries, SPA and short ascending veins, SAV, which only extend to layer IV. Fifth row) Long ascending venules (LAV) also collect blood from deeper layers than their short counterparts (layer VI). The color reflects blood pressure from high (red = 120mmHg) to low (blue = 5mmHg).