ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2013
Proposed evolutionary changes in the role of myelin.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Neural bottlenecks: axon count, distribution, and conduction in the Manduca sexta neck connective.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Differential Myeloarchitecture of Subfields of the Mammalian Auditory Cortex: A Comparative Approach.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2026Review
- The cryptonephridial/rectal complex: an evolutionary adaptation for water and ion conservation.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Evolutionary and genomic perspectives of brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases.Progress in brain research · 2023Article
- Pareto optimality, economy-effectiveness trade-offs and ion channel degeneracy: improving population modelling for single neurons.Open biology · 2022Review
- Role of glia in optic nerve.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2021Review
- New evidence for secondary axonal degeneration in demyelinating neuropathies.Neuroscience letters · 2021Review
- Glial Cell AMPA Receptors in Nervous System Health, Injury and Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Enhancing Remyelination through a Novel Opioid-Receptor Pathway.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2016Article
- Microenvironmental regulation of oligodendrocyte replacement and remyelination in spinal cord injury.The Journal of physiology · 2016Review
- Physiological Dynamics in Demyelinating Diseases: Unraveling Complex Relationships through Computer Modeling.International journal of molecular sciences · 2015Review
- Myelin damage and repair in pathologic CNS: challenges and prospects.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Myelin is the multi-layered lipid sheet periodically wrapped around neuronal axons. It is most frequently found in vertebrates. Myelin allows for saltatory action potential (AP) conduction along axons. During this form of conduction, the AP travels passively along the myelin-covered part of the axon, and is recharged at the intermittent nodes of Ranvier. Thus, myelin can reduce the energy load needed and/or increase the speed of AP conduction. Myelin first evolved during the Ordovician period. We hypothesize that myelin's first role was mainly energy conservation. During the later "Mesozoic marine revolution," marine ecosystems changed toward an increase in marine predation pressure. We hypothesize that the main purpose of myelin changed from energy conservation to conduction speed increase during this Mesozoic marine revolution. To test this hypothesis, we optimized models of myelinated axons for a combination of AP conduction velocity and energy efficiency. We demonstrate that there is a trade-off between these objectives. We then compared the simulation results to empirical data and conclude that while the data are consistent with the theory, additional measurements are necessary for a complete evaluation of the proposed hypothesis.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.