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Dense network mapping in human cortex reveals a large interneuron-to-interneuron network that is almost absent in the mouse. This novel neuronal network may constitute a key evolutionary invention in human cortex. Loomba et al., Science 2022 (science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo0924)
 

How can you build neuronal networks that are more complex than anything known today? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, have mapped the development of inhibitory neuronal circuitry and report the discovery of distinct circuit formation principles. Their findings enable scientists to monitor the change of neuronal network structure longitudinally, capturing moments when an individual grows and adapts to its environment. Gour et al., Science 2020 (science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb4534)
 

Researchers use connectomic mapping in the developing cortex to uncover the developmental wiring rules for inhibitory neurons Gour et al., Science 2020 (science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb4534)

 Analysis of neurons and their synapses in a dense reconstruction from the cerebral cortex. Science 2019 (science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay3134). Mammalian brains, with their unmatched number of nerve cells and density of communication between them, are the most complex networks known. While methods to analyze neuronal networks sparsely, accessing about one in every ten thousandth nerve cell have been available for decades, the dense mapping of neuronal circuits by imaging each and every synapse and all neuronal wires in a given piece of brain tissue has been a major challenge. In an article published October 24, 2019 in Science, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, report that they succeeded in the dense connectomic mapping of about half a million cubic micrometers of brain tissue from the mouse cerebral cortex using 3-dimensional electron microscopy and AI-based image analysis. Colorful version https://youtu.be/3dGTStDw3J4

 

Flight along an axon in mouse cerebral cortex, showing the “skeleton” of the nerve cell; followed by a display of SegEM-reconstructed nerve cells. Berning, Boergens, Helmstaedter 2015, © Max Planck Institute for Brain Research

“Neural circuit reconstruction using SegEM”, Berning, Boergens, Helmstaedter 2015 © Max Planck Institute for Brain Research

Illustration of the process by which a three-dimensional electron-microscopic data set is turned into a cellular-resolution connectivity matrix (“connectome”). Helmstaedter et al., 2013; © Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany