Brain Wiring and Supragranular-Enriched Genes Linked to Protracted Human Frontal Cortex Development
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The human frontal cortex is unusually large compared with many other species. The expansion of the human frontal cortex is accompanied by both connectivity and transcriptional changes. Yet, the developmental origins generating variation in frontal cortex circuitry across species remain unresolved. Nineteen genes that encode filaments, synapse, and voltage-gated channels are especially enriched in the supragranular layers of the human cerebral cortex, which suggests enhanced corticocortical projections emerging from layer III. We identify species differences in connections with the use of diffusion MR tractography as well as gene expression in adulthood and in development to identify developmental mechanisms generating variation in frontal cortical circuitry. We demonstrate that increased expression of supragranular-enriched genes in frontal cortex layer III is concomitant with an expansion in corticocortical pathways projecting within the frontal cortex in humans relative to mice. We also demonstrate that the growth of the frontal cortex white matter and transcriptional profiles of supragranular-enriched genes are protracted in humans relative to mice. The expansion of projections emerging from the human frontal cortex arises by extending frontal cortical circuitry development. Integrating gene expression with neuroimaging level phenotypes is an effective strategy to assess deviations in developmental programs leading to species differences in connections.
Source: Cerebral Cortex
Language: English
Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: Johns Hopkins University, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1026674440, Atypical Formation of Fiber Pathways and Cortical Folding in the Brain, Development of Brain Connectivity in Human Fetus, Newborn, and Toddler Ages, G6267963559, Development of Brain Connectivity in the Human Fetus, Renewal of Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research, G85547231, Delaware INBRE, A Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Neuroscience at an HBCU
OpenAlex ID: W3034893761