Where can you visualize ideas as physical arrangements of neural networks?
Where? Why, just over the horizon…. You are on the right track with Connectomics though. There is an inexorable top-down, bottom-up convergence underway between the low hanging fruit of the various neuroimaging technologies on the one hand, and brain simulation on the other.
The best summary I’ve seen lately is the three Henry Markram videos in my recent answer to: Is it theoretically impossible for anyone to gain immortality through living in a machine? I’ve also got more tools, projects and videos listed on my Meta Guide webpage, “Brain Simulation” [1].
[1] http://www.meta-guide.com/home/robopsychology/brain-simulation