Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36413612›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of comparative neurology2023

Cortical synapses of the world's smallest mammal: An FIB/SEM study in the Etruscan shrew.

Lidia Alonso-Nanclares, J Rodrigo Rodríguez, Angel Merchan-Perez, Juncal González-Soriano, Sergio Plaza-Alonso, Nicolás Cano-Astorga, Robert K Naumann, Michael Brecht, Javier DeFelipe

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of comparative neurology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.

Lidia Alonso-NanclaresLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-2649-7097
J Rodrigo RodríguezLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-4855-8073
Angel Merchan-PerezLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-7228-5821
Juncal González-SorianoLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-2854-9532
Sergio Plaza-AlonsoLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-2484-5791
Nicolás Cano-AstorgaLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-3724-0481
Robert K NaumannCAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen, Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0000-0002-1295-9185
Michael BrechtDepartment of Animal Physiology/Systems Neurobiology and Neural Computation, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5387-0953
Javier DeFelipeLaboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-5484-0660
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas · ESBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin · DEChinese Academy of Sciences · CNUniversidad Complutense de Madrid · ESUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to determine if synapses from the exceptionally small brain of the Etruscan shrew show any peculiarities compared to the much larger human brain. We analyzed the cortical synaptic density and a variety of structural characteristics of 7,239 3D reconstructed synapses, using using Focused Ion Beam/Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB/SEM). We found that some of the general synaptic characteristics are remarkably similar to those found in the human cerebral cortex. However, the cortical volume of the human brain is about 50,000 times larger than the cortical volume of the Etruscan shrew, while the total number of cortical synapses in human is only 20,000 times the number of synapses in the shrew, and synaptic junctions are 35% smaller in the Etruscan shrew. Thus, the differences in the number and size of synapses cannot be attributed to a brain size scaling effect but rather to adaptations of synaptic circuits to particular functions.

Indexed as

ShrewsSynapsesAnimalsCerebral CortexHumansMicroscopy, Electron, ScanningSomatosensory Cortexbraincerebral cortexelectron microscopyFIB-SEMsynaptic junctionultrastructure

Identifiers

PMID36413612
PMCPMC10100312
OpenAlexW4309652836

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.