ArticlePLoS biology2014
An adaptive threshold in mammalian neocortical evolution.
Article in PLoS biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- CCNB1IP1 regulatory evolution underlies gradual increases in cortical size and folding in primates.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Coordinated neural progenitor adaptations contribute to primate neocortical downscaling.Science advances · 2026Article
- Spatial transcriptomics reveal developmental dynamics of the human cerebral cortex and striatum.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Transcriptome of fetal cortex of tree shrew underlying the emergence of outer subventricular zone.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A transcriptional atlas of gyrification reveals dynamic spatio-temporal gene expression in the developing ferret cortex.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Shaping the Neocortex: Radial Glia and Astrocytes in Development and Evolution.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Review
- The Principle of Cortical Development and Evolution.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Review
- The microcephaly-associated transcriptional regulator AUTS2 cooperates with Polycomb complex PRC2 to produce upper-layer neurons in mice.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
- The Control of Cortical Folding: Multiple Mechanisms, Multiple Models.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2024Review
- Molecular signatures of cortical expansion in the human foetal brain.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Review
- Indirect neurogenesis in space and time.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2024Review
- Review
- ERK signaling expands mammalian cortical radial glial cells and extends the neurogenic period.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Molecular signatures of cortical expansion in the human fetal brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- BMP7 expression in mammalian cortical radial glial cells increases the length of the neurogenic period.Protein & cell · 2024Article
- Adult neurogenesis and the microbiota-gut-brain axis in farm animals: underestimated and understudied parameters for improving welfare in livestock farming.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Review
- Shaping the brain: The emergence of cortical structure and folding.Developmental cell · 2023Review
- Neocortex neurogenesis and maturation in the African greater cane rat.Neural development · 2023Article
- The brain on time: links between development and neurodegeneration.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Expansion of the neocortex is a hallmark of human evolution. However, determining which adaptive mechanisms facilitated its expansion remains an open question. Here we show, using the gyrencephaly index (GI) and other physiological and life-history data for 102 mammalian species, that gyrencephaly is an ancestral mammalian trait. We find that variation in GI does not evolve linearly across species, but that mammals constitute two principal groups above and below a GI threshold value of 1.5, approximately equal to 109 neurons, which may be characterized by distinct constellations of physiological and life-history traits. By integrating data on neurogenic period, neuroepithelial founder pool size, cell-cycle length, progenitor-type abundances, and cortical neuron number into discrete mathematical models, we identify symmetric proliferative divisions of basal progenitors in the subventricular zone of the developing neocortex as evolutionarily necessary for generating a 14-fold increase in daily prenatal neuron production, traversal of the GI threshold, and thus establishment of two principal groups. We conclude that, despite considerable neuroanatomical differences, changes in the length of the neurogenic period alone, rather than any novel neurogenic progenitor lineage, are sufficient to explain differences in neuron number and neocortical size between species within the same principal group.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.