What makes it so that, at the brain level, no two people are exactly alike? An investigation by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) suggests thatrandom collisions between neurons during brain developmentthey create orderly patterns when there are no signs to guide their destiny. This finding could help explain theindividual differences in brain organization in members of the same species. The study has been published in the journalNeuron.
Experiments carried out by the group led by CSIC researcher Óscar Marín, from the Institute of Neurosciences, show that the movement of Cajal-Retzius cells, a type of neurons that are generated very early in the embryonic brain and that play a A key role in the development of the cerebral cortex – one of the most complex regions of the mammalian brain – is not directed by guide signals that indicate their destination, which defines, among other things, the function they perform. Researchers have found that it is the random contact and subsequent repulsion between neurons that come into contact with each other that determines their distribution on the surface of the cerebral cortex. “We have shown that chance intervenes in the development of the brain”, explains Marín.
The placement of the Cajal-Retzius cells seems to be essential for the neurons of the cerebral cortex to be distributed in ordered matrices that form horizontal layers and vertical columns. This organization is key for the functional areas of the cerebral cortex, which are populations ofneurons specialized in processing information of a certain sensory modality (such as sight or touch) or motor, can interpret it effectively.
Verona Villar-Cerviño, co-author of the work, states that, although before it was thought that the variability was only genetic, the new studies reveal that, “another way to explain the differences in sensory acuity and motor capacity of individuals of the same species it could be these random collisions between cells as they travel to their destination. ” ? Since these cortical neurons are the ones that subsequently define the different abilities of each type of cortex (visual, motor, etc.), it is very likely that the variability that emerges during development has a lot to do withthe differences between some people and others“, concludes Marín.
