Axonal Fiber Terminations Concentrate on Gyri

Jingxin Nie, Lei Guo, Kaiming Li, Yonghua Wang, Guojun Chen, Longchuan Li, Hanbo Chen, Fan Deng, Xi Jiang, Tuo Zhang, Ling Huang, Carlos Faraco, Degang Zhang, Cong Guo, Pew Thian Yap, Xintao Hu, Gang Li, Jinglei Lv, Yixuan Yuan, Dajiang ZhuJunwei Han, Dean Sabatinelli, Qun Zhao, L. Stephen Miller, Bingqian Xu, Ping Shen, Simon Platt, Dinggang Shen, Xiaoping Hu, Tianming Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

117 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Convoluted cortical folding and neuronal wiring are 2 prominent attributes of the mammalian brain. However, the macroscale intrinsic relationship between these 2 general cross-species attributes, as well as the underlying principles that sculpt the architecture of the cerebral cortex, remains unclear. Here, we show that the axonal fibers connected to gyri are significantly denser than those connected to sulci. In human, chimpanzee, and macaque brains, a dominant fraction of axonal fibers were found to be connected to the gyri. This finding has been replicated in a range of mammalian brains via diffusion tensor imaging and high-angular resolution diffusion imaging. These results may have shed some lights on fundamental mechanisms for development and organization of the cerebral cortex, suggesting that axonal pushing is a mechanism of cortical folding.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2831-2839
JournalCerebral Cortex
Volume22
Issue number12
Online published20 Dec 2011
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Northwestern Polytechnic University Foundation for Fundamental Research to J. Nie, L. Guo, and G. Li; National Institutes of Health (K01 EB 006878 and R01 HL087923-03S2 to T. Liu, PO1 AG026423 to L. Li and X. Hu); The University of Georgia start-up research funding to T. Liu; China Government Scholarship to K. Li, T. Zhang, and D. Zhang.

Research Keywords

  • cortical folding
  • diffusion tensor imaging
  • shape analysis

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