Connectomic comparison of mouse and human cortex
Abstract
The human cerebral cortex houses 1000 times more neurons than that of the cerebral cortex of a mouse, but the possible differences in synaptic circuits between these species are still poorly understood. We used three-dimensional electron microscopy of mouse, macaque, and human cortical samples to study their cell type composition and synaptic circuit architecture. The 2.5-fold increase in interneurons in humans compared with mice was compensated by a change in axonal connection probabilities and therefore did not yield a commensurate increase in inhibitory-versus-excitatory synaptic input balance on human pyramidal cells. Rather, increased inhibition created an expanded interneuron-to-interneuron network, driven by an expansion of interneuron-targeting interneuron types and an increase in their synaptic selectivity for interneuron innervation. These constitute key neuronal network alterations in the human cortex.
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The preference of glutamatergic axons for spines and GABAergic axons for shafts is often misinterpreted as implying that synapses on dendritic shafts are mostly SS.
“However, this characteristic is often misinterpreted as implying that synapses on dendritic shafts are mostly SS (Motta et al., 2019; Karimi et al., 2020; Loomba et al., 2022).”
From Unambiguous identification of asymmetric and symmetric synapses using volume electron microscopy (2024) · cites this paper as Loomba et al., 2022
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- Authors
- Loomba, S., Straehle, J., Gangadharan, V., Heike, N., Khalifa, A., Motta, A., Ju, N., Sievers, M., Gempt, J., Meyer, H. S., & Helmstaedter, M.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (DE)
- Department of Connectomics, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany.
- TUM Klinikum (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Loomba, Sahil
- Straehle, Jakob
- Gangadharan, Vijayan
- Heike, Natalie
- Motta, Alessandro
- Helmstaedter, Moritz
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2022-07-08
- Volume
- 377
- Issue
- 6602
- Pages
- eabo0924-eabo0924
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W4283328497
- Cited by
- 242
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 75 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 8
- FWCI
- 22.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- mediaTUM (Technical University of Munich) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- cerebral cortex, interneurons, synaptic circuits, excitation-inhibition balance, pyramidal neurons, macaque cortex, 3D electron microscopy
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cerebral Cortex, Humans, Interneurons, Macaca, Pyramidal Cells, Mice, Connectome
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