Of Mice and Men, and Chandeliers 英文参考文献.docVIP

Primer Of Mice and Men, and Chandeliers Alan Woodruff, Rafael Yuste* Of Mice and Men specifically contact the axon initial segment of pyramidal cells [9]. This key finding was confirmed by Fairen and Valverde [10] and DeFelipe et al. [11], who proposed that chandelier cells and AACs were the same cell type. Both terms have been used interchangeably in the literature ever since. What makes us human? One of the most obvious answers to this age-old question lies in the structure and function of the central nervous system, particularly the neocortex, where unique human features may lie. In fact, humans have not only a proportionally much larger neocortex compared to that of other mammals, but also a huge frontal lobe, the font of higher cognition. In seeking clues to the biological basis of being human, neuroanatomists have long compared the human brain to that of other species, leading them to develop two distinct theories. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of neuroanatomy, argued that the cortex of “higher” mammals, like humans, has more classes of neurons than those of “lower” mammals, for which he used the mouse as an example [1]. Specifically, he proposed that the variety and sophistication of “short-axon” cells, i.e., GABAergic inhibitory interneurons, increases as one climbs up the evolutionary ladder [2]. The alternative position—that differences among species arise not from variations in cell types, but from the size and complexity of the circuits—was defended by Cajal’s own disciple, Rafael Lorente de Nó, who, like many of the best students, did exactly the opposite of what he had been taught. Choosing the mouse as his experimental system for his thesis at the tender age of 20, Lorente described as many cell types in the mouse neocortex as Cajal had described in humans. Cajal politely published Lorente’s paper in his journal without corrections [3], yet told his disciple that he was wrong. The argument would continue until Cajal’s death: on his deathbed in