Clark, D. A., Mitra, P. P., Wang, S. S. H. (2001) Scalable architecture in mammalian brains. Nature, 411 (6834). pp. 189-193. ISSN 00280836 (ISSN)
Abstract
Comparison of mammalian brain parts has often focused on differences in absolute size revealing only a general tendency for all parts to grow together. Attempts to find size-independent effects using body weight as a reference variable obscure size relationships owing to independent variation of body size and give phylogenies of questionable significance. Here we use the brain itself as a size reference to define the cerebrotype, a species-by-species measure of brain composition. With this measure, across many mammalian taxa the cerebellum occupies a constant fraction of the total brain volume (0.13 ± 0.02), arguing against the hypothesis that the cerebellum acts as a computational engine principally serving the neocortex. Mammalian taxa can be well separated by cerebrotype, thus allowing the use of quantitative neuroanatomical data to test evolutionary relationships. Primate cerebrotypes have progressively shifted and neocortical volume fractions have become successively larger in lemurs and lorises, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and hominoids, lending support to the idea that primate brain architecture has been driven by directed selection pressure. At the same time, absolute brain size can vary over 100-fold within a taxon, while maintaining a relatively uniform cerebrotype. Brains therefore constitute a scalable architecture.
| Item Type: | Paper |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Brain Size determination Volume fraction Total brain volume Neurology article body size body weight brain size cerebellum monkey neocortex neuroanatomy nonhuman primate priority journal prosimian Algorithms Animals Body Constitution Databases Evolution Humans Phylogeny Primates Reference Values Species Specificity Cercopithecidae Homo Lemuridae Loridae Mammalia Platyrrhini Strepsirhini |
| Subjects: | bioinformatics > quantitative biology organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organs types and functions > brain organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organs types and functions |
| CSHL Authors: | |
| Communities: | CSHL labs > Mitra lab |
| Depositing User: | CSHL Librarian |
| Date: | 2001 |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Apr 2012 16:56 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Feb 2017 21:18 |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25826 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Administrator's edit/view item |