Mouse brain

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Mouse brain, lateral view Mouse brain.jpg
Mouse brain, lateral view

The mouse brain refers to the brain of Mus musculus . Various brain atlases exist.

Contents

For reasons of reproducibility, genetically characterized, stable strains like C57BL/6 were chosen to produce high-resolution images and databases. [1] Well known online resources include:

Despite superficial differences, especially in size and weight, the mouse brain and its function can serve as a powerful animal model for study of human brain diseases or mental disorders (see e.g. Reeler, Chakragati mouse). This is because the genes responsible for building and operating both mouse and human brain are 90% identical. [4] Transgenic mouse lines also allow neuroscientists to specifically target the labeling of certain cell types to probe the neural basis of fundamental processes. [5] [6]

Anatomy

The cerebral cortex of a mouse has around 8–14 million neurons while in those humans there are more than 10–15 billion. [7] [8] The olfactory bulb volume takes about 2% of the mouse brain by volume in contrast to about 0.01% of the human brain. [9] [10]

Development

See also

Related Research Articles

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Reelin, encoded by the RELN gene, is a large secreted extracellular matrix glycoprotein that helps regulate processes of neuronal migration and positioning in the developing brain by controlling cell–cell interactions. Besides this important role in early development, reelin continues to work in the adult brain. It modulates synaptic plasticity by enhancing the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation. It also stimulates dendrite and dendritic spine development and regulates the continuing migration of neuroblasts generated in adult neurogenesis sites like the subventricular and subgranular zones. It is found not only in the brain but also in the liver, thyroid gland, adrenal gland, Fallopian tube, breast and in comparatively lower levels across a range of anatomical regions.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyramidal cell</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motor cortex</span> Region of the cerebral cortex

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">BrainMaps</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reeler</span> Mouse mutant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brainbow</span> Neuroimaging technique to differentiate neurons

Brainbow is a process by which individual neurons in the brain can be distinguished from neighboring neurons using fluorescent proteins. By randomly expressing different ratios of red, green, and blue derivatives of green fluorescent protein in individual neurons, it is possible to flag each neuron with a distinctive color. This process has been a major contribution to the field of neural connectomics.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified mouse</span>

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Connectomics is the production and study of connectomes: comprehensive maps of connections within an organism's nervous system. More generally, it can be thought of as the study of neuronal wiring diagrams with a focus on how structural connectivity, individual synapses, cellular morphology, and cellular ultrastructure contribute to the make up of a network. The nervous system is a network made of billions of connections and these connections are responsible for our thoughts, emotions, actions, memories, function and dysfunction. Therefore, the study of connectomics aims to advance our understanding of mental health and cognition by understanding how cells in the nervous system are connected and communicate. Because these structures are extremely complex, methods within this field use a high-throughput application of functional and structural neural imaging, most commonly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electron microscopy, and histological techniques in order to increase the speed, efficiency, and resolution of these nervous system maps. To date, tens of large scale datasets have been collected spanning the nervous system including the various areas of cortex, cerebellum, the retina, the peripheral nervous system and neuromuscular junctions.

Gyrification is the process of forming the characteristic folds of the cerebral cortex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eomesodermin</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Eomesodermin also known as T-box brain protein 2 (Tbr2) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EOMES gene.

Corticogenesis is the process during which the cerebral cortex of the brain is formed as part of the development of the nervous system of mammals including its development in humans. The cortex is the outer layer of the brain and is composed of up to six layers. Neurons formed in the ventricular zone migrate to their final locations in one of the six layers of the cortex. The process occurs from embryonic day 10 to 17 in mice and between gestational weeks seven to 18 in humans.

Cajal–Retzius cells are a heterogeneous population of morphologically and molecularly distinct reelin-producing cell types in the marginal zone/layer I of the developmental cerebral cortex and in the immature hippocampus of different species and at different times during embryogenesis and postnatal life.

Neurogenesis is the process by which nervous system cells, the neurons, are produced by neural stem cells (NSCs). It occurs in all species of animals except the porifera (sponges) and placozoans. Types of NSCs include neuroepithelial cells (NECs), radial glial cells (RGCs), basal progenitors (BPs), intermediate neuronal precursors (INPs), subventricular zone astrocytes, and subgranular zone radial astrocytes, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radial unit hypothesis</span> Conceptual theory of cerebral cortex development

The Radial Unit Hypothesis (RUH) is a conceptual theory of cerebral cortex development, first described by Pasko Rakic. The RUH states that the cerebral cortex develops during embryogenesis as an array of interacting cortical columns, or 'radial units', each of which originates from a transient stem cell layer called the ventricular zone, which contains neural stem cells known as radial glial cells.

References

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  2. "ISH Data :: Allen Brain Atlas: Mouse Brain". ISH Data. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
  3. "Search the library". The Mouse Brain Library. 2003-06-05. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
  4. Park, Alice (19 January 2007). "The Brain: What the Mouse Brain Tells Us". Time.
  5. Gordon, J. W.; Scangos, G. A.; Plotkin, D. J.; Barbosa, J. A.; Ruddle, F. H. (1980-12-01). "Genetic transformation of mouse embryos by microinjection of purified DNA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 77 (12): 7380–7384. Bibcode:1980PNAS...77.7380G. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.12.7380 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   350507 . PMID   6261253.
  6. Haruyama, Naoto; Cho, Andrew; Kulkarni, Ashok B. (2009). "Overview: Engineering Transgenic Constructs and Mice". Current Protocols in Cell Biology. 42 (1): 19.10.1–19.10.9. doi:10.1002/0471143030.cb1910s42. ISSN   1934-2616. PMC   2743315 . PMID   19283728.
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  8. Herculano-Houzel, Suzana; Catania, Kenneth; Manger, Paul R.; Kaas, Jon H. (2015). "Mammalian Brains Are Made of These: A Dataset of the Numbers and Densities of Neuronal and Nonneuronal Cells in the Brain of Glires, Primates, Scandentia, Eulipotyphlans, Afrotherians and Artiodactyls, and Their Relationship with Body Mass". Brain, Behavior and Evolution. S. Karger AG. 86 (3–4): 145–163. doi: 10.1159/000437413 . ISSN   0006-8977. PMID   26418466.
  9. McGann, John P. (2017-05-11). "Poor human olfaction is a 19th-century myth". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 356 (6338): eaam7263. doi:10.1126/science.aam7263. ISSN   0036-8075. PMC   5512720 . PMID   28495701.
  10. "Brain Facts and Figures". faculty.washington.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
  11. Dura-Bernal, Salvador; Neymotin, Samuel A.; Suter, Benjamin A.; Dacre, Joshua; Moreira, Joao V.S.; Urdapilleta, Eugenio; Schiemann, Julia; Duguid, Ian; Shepherd, Gordon M.G.; Lytton, William W. (June 2023). "Multiscale model of primary motor cortex circuits predicts in vivo cell-type-specific, behavioral state-dependent dynamics". Cell Reports. 42 (6): 112574. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112574 . Retrieved 21 June 2023.