Claustro-cortical connectivity

Synaesthesia and cortical connectivity.

Synaesthesia is a heritable condition of involuntary sensory cross-activation whereby the presentation of a particular stimulus elicits a secondary sensory-perceptual experience. It is thought to be caused by aberrant cross-activation of one cortical area by another, but models differ as to whether this reflects functional or structural differences in the brains of synaesthetes. Here we conside...

Cortical selectivity through random connectivity.

Transcriptional Control of Cortical Connectivity

Otx1 is a mammalian homolog of the Drosophila gene the CMZ, it is not clear if D3 overexpression directly orthodenticle, a homeodomain transcription factor (Siaffects the fate of the ipsilaterally projecting cells or just meone et al., 1992). Otx1 is expressed in progenitor cells decreases the number of ventral ganglion cells generin the cortical ventricular zone and in deep layers of the ated ...

Breakdown of cortical effective connectivity during sleep.

When we fall asleep, consciousness fades yet the brain remains active. Why is this so? To investigate whether changes in cortical information transmission play a role, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation together with high-density electroencephalography and asked how the activation of one cortical area (the premotor area) is transmitted to the rest of the brain. During quiet wakefulness, ...

Astrocytes refine cortical connectivity at dendritic spines

During cortical synaptic development, thalamic axons must establish synaptic connections despite the presence of the more abundant intracortical projections. How thalamocortical synapses are formed and maintained in this competitive environment is unknown. Here, we show that astrocyte-secreted protein hevin is required for normal thalamocortical synaptic connectivity in the mouse cortex. Absenc...