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Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex

The cellular and areal organization of the cerebral cortex impacts how it processes and integrates information. How that organization emerges and how best to characterize it has been debated for over a century. Here we demonstrate and describe in the isocortices of seven primate species a pronounced...

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Autores principales: Cahalane, Diarmuid J., Charvet, Christine J., Finlay, Barbara L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22826696
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2012.00028
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author Cahalane, Diarmuid J.
Charvet, Christine J.
Finlay, Barbara L.
author_facet Cahalane, Diarmuid J.
Charvet, Christine J.
Finlay, Barbara L.
author_sort Cahalane, Diarmuid J.
collection PubMed
description The cellular and areal organization of the cerebral cortex impacts how it processes and integrates information. How that organization emerges and how best to characterize it has been debated for over a century. Here we demonstrate and describe in the isocortices of seven primate species a pronounced anterior-to-posterior gradient in the density of neurons and in the number of neurons under a unit area of the cortical surface. Our findings assert that the cellular architecture of the primate isocortex is neither arranged uniformly nor into discrete patches with an arbitrary spatial arrangement. Rather, it exhibits striking systematic variation. We conjecture that these gradients, which establish the basic landscape that richer areal and cellular structure is built upon, result from developmental patterns of cortical neurogenesis which are conserved across species. Moreover, we propose a functional consequence: that the gradient in neurons per unit of cortical area fosters the integration and dimensional reduction of information along its ascent through sensory areas and toward frontal cortex.
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spelling pubmed-33991202012-07-23 Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex Cahalane, Diarmuid J. Charvet, Christine J. Finlay, Barbara L. Front Neuroanat Neuroscience The cellular and areal organization of the cerebral cortex impacts how it processes and integrates information. How that organization emerges and how best to characterize it has been debated for over a century. Here we demonstrate and describe in the isocortices of seven primate species a pronounced anterior-to-posterior gradient in the density of neurons and in the number of neurons under a unit area of the cortical surface. Our findings assert that the cellular architecture of the primate isocortex is neither arranged uniformly nor into discrete patches with an arbitrary spatial arrangement. Rather, it exhibits striking systematic variation. We conjecture that these gradients, which establish the basic landscape that richer areal and cellular structure is built upon, result from developmental patterns of cortical neurogenesis which are conserved across species. Moreover, we propose a functional consequence: that the gradient in neurons per unit of cortical area fosters the integration and dimensional reduction of information along its ascent through sensory areas and toward frontal cortex. Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-07-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3399120/ /pubmed/22826696 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2012.00028 Text en Copyright © 2012 Cahalane, Charvet and Finlay. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Cahalane, Diarmuid J.
Charvet, Christine J.
Finlay, Barbara L.
Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title_full Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title_fullStr Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title_full_unstemmed Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title_short Systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
title_sort systematic, balancing gradients in neuron density and number across the primate isocortex
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22826696
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2012.00028
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