The Cerebral Neocortex

Eccles, John C.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-6610-6_1

Cited by 62 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Though a visionary of the dynamics of synaptic transmission, Eccles discarded the notion that dendrites are relevant for the integration of synaptic input (Eccles, 1960 ). A student of Eccles, Wilfred Rall disagreed and developed – in spite of many years of disagreement with Eccles – a comprehensive mathematical theory of how synaptic potentials are summated in the dendrites of a neuron, thereby giving rise to its axonal spiking output (Rall, 1955 , 1957 , 1959 , 1960 , 1962 ).…”

Section: Dendrites and Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A history of spike-timing-dependent plasticity

Markram

Gerstner

Sjöström

2011

Front. Syn. Neurosci.

365

265

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How learning and memory is achieved in the brain is a central question in neuroscience. Key to today’s research into information storage in the brain is the concept of synaptic plasticity, a notion that has been heavily influenced by Hebb's (1949) postulate. Hebb conjectured that repeatedly and persistently co-active cells should increase connective strength among populations of interconnected neurons as a means of storing a memory trace, also known as an engram. Hebb certainly was not the first to make such a conjecture, as we show in this history. Nevertheless, literally thousands of studies into the classical frequency-dependent paradigm of cellular learning rules were directly inspired by the Hebbian postulate. But in more recent years, a novel concept in cellular learning has emerged, where temporal order instead of frequency is emphasized. This new learning paradigm – known as spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) – has rapidly gained tremendous interest, perhaps because of its combination of elegant simplicity, biological plausibility, and computational power. But what are the roots of today’s STDP concept? Here, we discuss several centuries of diverse thinking, beginning with philosophers such as Aristotle, Locke, and Ribot, traversing, e.g., Lugaro’s plasticità and Rosenblatt’s perceptron, and culminating with the discovery of STDP. We highlight interactions between theoretical and experimental fields, showing how discoveries sometimes occurred in parallel, seemingly without much knowledge of the other field, and sometimes via concrete back-and-forth communication. We point out where the future directions may lie, which includes interneuron STDP, the functional impact of STDP, its mechanisms and its neuromodulatory regulation, and the linking of STDP to the developmental formation and continuous plasticity of neuronal networks.

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Section: Dendrites and Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A history of spike-timing-dependent plasticity

Markram

Gerstner

Sjöström

2011

Front. Syn. Neurosci.

365

265

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“…A core feature of the intrinsic cortical circuit is the pyramidal cell, a projection neuron that sends axons to both cortical and subcortical sites. Pyramidal neurons employ glutamate as a neurotransmitter (Conti, Fabri, & Manzoni, 1988) and exert excitatory influences on their follower neurons (Eccles, 1984). With regard to corticocortical connections, pyramidal cell axons project vertically toward layer I, where they form excitatory connections with distal portions of apical dendrites from other pyramidal neurons.…”

Section: Stress and Modeling For Mental Illnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental changes in stress adaptation in relation to psychopathology

Beneš

1994

Dev Psychopathol

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As modern neuroscience seeks to understand the neural bases for mental illness, it is becoming increasingly important to define how and when complex neural circuits may be altered in individuals who carry the genetic vulnerability for psychopathology. One factor that could potentially play a contributory role in mental illness is the stress response. A variety of studies suggest that stress can alter the activity of several key cortical neurotransmitters, including glutamate, γ-aminobutyric acid, dopamine, and serotonin. Specifically, exposure to neurotoxic levels of adrenal steroid hormone, particularly if this occurs early in life, could potentially induce permanent changes of these transmitter systems in corticolimbic regions, such as the hippocampal formation and cingulate gyrus, that have a high density of glucocorticoid receptors. Overall, exposure to severe stress during the perinatal period could potentially induce alterations in the circuitry of the anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampal formation and interfere with the normal mechanisms underlying attention and learning.

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“…The cerebral cortex is a striking example of an ingenious and economic design of nature. Although the surface area of the neocortex is vastly different in the wide variety of mammals, the consistent feature of the cortex organization forms anatomically and physiologically distinct laminar and columnar compartments [1,2]. All cortical neurons in primates, including humans, are generated during the first half of gestation within the proliferative zone lining the surface of the cerebral ventricle [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal expression of vasodilator‐stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) in fetal and adult human cerebral cortex

Yaba

Kayisli

Tanrıöver

et al. 2010

Intl J of Devlp Neuroscience

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Vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) is a member of the Ena/VASP protein family and was for the first time identified in human platelets. VASP plays a role for cell adhesion and cell migration because of E/DFPPPPXD/E amino acid sequence in its structure which gives reaction with focal adhesion proteins. In this study we suggest that VASP expression may have important role for neural cell migration, differentiation, axonal growth and angiogenesis during prenatal cerebral cortical development. Our aim is to detect VASP expression by means of immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis in developing human neocortex and adult brain cortex (n=12 samples from first, second, and third trimesters and n=3 adult normal cerebral cortex). Our results suggest that VASP showed different immunostaining patterns between cerebral cortical plates in prenatal and adult human brain samples. We observed that the expression patterns of the VASP protein are clearly identified in fibers, cytoplasm of neural cells and endothelial cells of vessels. We detected that VASP indicates progressive expression from the adult brain to second trimester neocortexes. Therefore, we suggest that VASP may play a crucial role in the regulation of human neonatal cerebral cortical development.

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The Cerebral Neocortex

Cited by 62 publications

References 68 publications

A history of spike-timing-dependent plasticity

A history of spike-timing-dependent plasticity

Developmental changes in stress adaptation in relation to psychopathology

Spatial and temporal expression of vasodilator‐stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) in fetal and adult human cerebral cortex

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