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Neuroscience

Sibling neurons bond to share sensations

Nature volume 486, pages 41–42 (2012)Cite this article

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Two studies show how electrical coupling between sister neurons in the developing cerebral cortex might help them to link up into columnar microcircuits that process related sensory information. See Letters p.113 & p.118

A pioneering set of experiments in the 1950s and 1960s inspired generations of neuroscientists to explore how the anatomy of the brain gives rise to its function1,2,3. When researchers lowered electrodes into the cerebral cortices of cats and monkeys, they found that neurons lying above and below each other form functional columns — that is, they respond in a similar way to certain stimuli, such as touch on specific areas of the skin or the orientation of an elongated visual stimulus.

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Figure 1: A link between neuronal lineage, connectivity and sensory preference.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel is in the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London WC1E 6DE, UK.,

    Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel

  2. Tobias Bonhoeffer is at the Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology, 82152 München-Martinsried, Germany.,

    Tobias Bonhoeffer

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  1. Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel
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  2. Tobias Bonhoeffer
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Correspondence to Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel or Tobias Bonhoeffer.

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Mrsic-Flogel, T., Bonhoeffer, T. Sibling neurons bond to share sensations. Nature 486, 41–42 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/486041a

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