综述: 大脑新皮层和神经发育疾病

哺乳动物进化过程中,大脑皮层逐渐增大增厚和脑容量增大,从而构成了脑神经环路复杂性的细胞生物学基础.皮层出现皱褶是非人类灵长类演化的重要特征.成体人脑大约由近860多亿个神经细胞组成,其中,在人脑神经发生高峰,每小时有近400多万个兴奋性神经细胞产生.如此高速的神经生成过程需要精确的细胞与分子调控机制.本文主要讨论调控大脑皮层增大增厚的细胞与分子机制和相关的脑发育疾病.

Review: Neocortical Expansion and Neurodevelopmental Disease

Changes of cerebral cortex size and brain volume have experienced evolutionary expansion across mammals, which is the cellular base of neuronal network complexity. The existence of cortex folding, allowing huge area of cortex to fit into a relatively small cranial space, is one of important evolutionary features in primate. The adult human CNS contains approximately 86.1 billion neurons and equal number of glial cells. Among which, human cerebral cortex consists of roughly 16.34 billion neurons. Based on algorithm analysis, approximately 3.86 million projection (excitatory/pyramidal) neurons are generated per hour during prenatal cortical neurogenesis in human. Such an incredible fast speed of neurogenesis suggests that human neocortex development requires strictly organized molecular regulations and cellular processes. Here we discuss the molecular and cellular characteristics of mammalian cerebral cortex expansion and the related disease.