Connectomic comparison of the human and non-human primate cortex to mouse

Abstract

Is the human brain simply a scaled-up version of the mouse brain? Sahil Loomba investigated the comparative aspects of structural connectivity in human, monkey and mouse brain using relatively novel three-dimensional electron microscopy technique. Sahil found evidence that the human nerve cells are composed of an increased number of interneurons that is two- to- three times higher compared to mouse. This, in effect, results in a massively increased connectivity between the inhibitory interneurons that is nearly absent in mouse. This, for the first time, points to a network innovation that is unique to the human cortical networks. This discovery encourages a new focus of studies on the functional relevance and impact of such connectivity features, with significance for fundamental as well as clinical neuroscience.