The human prefrontal cortex has been considered different in several aspects and relatively enlarged compared to the rest of the cortical areas. Here we determine whether the white and gray matter of the prefrontal portion of the human cerebral cortex have similar or different cellular compositions relative to the rest of the cortical regions by applying the Isotropic Fractionator to analyze th...

During cerebral cortical development, ingrowing axons from different thalamic nuclei select and invade their cortical targets. The selection of an appropriate target is first evident even before thalamic axons grow into the cortical plate: initially axons accumulate and wait below their cortical target area in a zone called the subplate. This zone also contains the first postmitotic neurons of ...

Presenilins are the major causative genes of familial Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our previous study has demonstrated essential roles of presenilins in memory and neuronal survival. Here, we explore further how loss of presenilins results in age-related, progressive neurodegeneration in the adult cerebral cortex, where the pathogenesis of AD occurs. To circumvent the requirement of presenilins fo...

Anesthetized and immobilized cats were used. The interval between the peripheral (conditioning) and the cortical (testing) stimulation equalled the latency of the response to effective peripheral input. Efferent nuclear neurons were identified by antidromic stimulations from contralateral brainstem nuclei. Various sequences of excitation and inhibition of different duration were induced by peri...

The present study utilizes nestin-BDNF transgenic mice, which offer a model for early increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signalling, to examine the role of BDNF in the development of cortical architecture. Our results demonstrate that the premature and homogeneous expression of BDNF, while preserving tangential migration from the ganglionic eminence to the cortex, impairs the fi...

In the auditory cortex, synaptic inhibition is known to be involved in shaping receptive fields, enhancing temporal precision, and regulating gain. Cortical inhibition is provided by local GABAergic interneurons, which comprise 10-20% of the cortical population and can be separated into numerous subclasses. The morphological and physiological diversity of interneurons suggests that these differ...

Injury to the human central nervous system can lead to devastating consequences due to its poor ability to self-repair. Neural transplantation aimed at replacing lost neurons and restore functional circuitry has proven to be a promising therapeutical avenue. We previously reported in adult rodent animal models with cortical lesions that grafted fetal cortical neurons could effectively re-establ...

In human patients, cortical dysplasia produced by Doublecortin (DCX) mutations lead to mental retardation and intractable infantile epilepsies, but the underlying mechanisms are not known. DCX / mice have been generated to investigate this issue. However, they display no neocortical abnormality, lessening their impact on the field. In contrast, in utero knockdown of DCX RNA produces a morpholog...

The primary cilium, a microtubule based organelle protruding from the cell surface and acting as an antenna in multiple signaling pathways, takes center stage formation of cerebral cortex, part brain that performs highly complex neural tasks confers humans with their unique cognitive capabilities. These activities require dozens different types neurons are interconnected ways. Due to this compl...

Periodic activity patterns or oscillations within the gamma frequency band (20-80 Hz) have been implicated in sensory processing and cognition in many areas of the cerebral cortex, including primary visual cortex (V1). Although periodic activity appears to be a hallmark of cortical neurons, little is known about the dynamics of these activity patterns as signals progress within local cortical c...