The movement neurons were divided into roles. Free Technical Library News

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Movement neurons divided into roles

12.11.2018

Neurons in the brain are sometimes quite different from each other, both in appearance, and in cellular and molecular properties, and, therefore, in function. With the advent of new research methods that make it possible to see molecular differences even between individual cells, neuroscientists regularly publish reports that they have found some new group of neurons with a special function in the brain.

Researchers at the Allen Brain Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute examined gene activity in 23822 neocortical neurons in the mouse brain. Scientists were able to determine the features in the work of about 9000 genes in each cell, and based on the data obtained, isolate more than 130 groups of neurons with similar genetic activity. The molecular features were then compared with what these cells look like, what their structure is, what other neurons they are connected to, etc.

The neocortex is responsible for higher cognitive functions, but the scientists decided to focus on a region called the anterior lateral motor cortex, which controls movement. It turned out that there are two groups of neurons. Some are connected to nerve cells in the brainstem, which directly prepare the body to make this or that movement. Other neurons of the anterior lateral motor cortex turned out to be connected to the thalamus, which serves as an information hub, switching impulses from the sense organs (except for the nose) between different parts of the brain.

In behavioral tests with mice that had to perform some simple actions, subtle but significant differences were found between both groups of cortical motor neurons. Those connected to the thalamus worked in planning future action, and those that went to the brain stem started the movement.

In general, these neurons have long attracted the attention of neuroscientists, as they are very sensitive to various neurodegenerative processes. However, only now it was possible to see that there is such a division of labor between the neurons of the motor cortex. Perhaps this will somehow help us understand how neurodegenerative diseases develop that affect our ability to control our own movements. True, it is still worth checking here that in humans the same group of motor neurons in the cortex is also divided according to functions.

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