Unique membrane properties and enhanced signal processing in human neocortical neurons
Open accessAbstract
The advanced cognitive capabilities of the human brain are often attributed to our recently evolved neocortex. However, it is not known whether the basic building blocks of the human neocortex, the pyramidal neurons, possess unique biophysical properties that might impact on cortical computations. Here we show that layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons from human temporal cortex (HL2/3 PCs) have a specific membrane capacitance ( C m ) of ~0.5 µF/cm 2 , half of the commonly accepted 'universal' value (~1 µF/cm 2 ) for biological membranes. This finding was predicted by fitting in vitro voltage transients to theoretical transients then validated by direct measurement of C m in nucleated patch experiments. Models of 3D reconstructed HL2/3 PCs demonstrated that such low C m value significantly enhances both synaptic charge-transfer from dendrites to soma and spike propagation along the axon. This is the first demonstration that human cortical neurons have distinctive membrane properties, suggesting important implications for signal processing in human neocortex.
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There is evidence for significant neuronal differences between rodents and humans, including distinct membrane and synaptic properties and dendritic complexity of human neurons that might contribute to human-specific signal processing.
“Indeed there is evidence for significant neuronal differences between rodents and human; for example, distinct membrane8,9 and synaptic10–14 properties and dendritic complexity15–17 of human neurons might contribute to human specific signal processing.”
From Transcriptomic and morphophysiological evidence for a specialized human cortical GABAergic cell type (2018) · cites this paper as [8]
Human pyramidal cells have uniquely small membrane capacitance, which promotes backpropagation of action potentials and increases excitability in human dendrites relative to rodent dendrites with larger capacitance.
“The uniquely small membrane capacitance (Cm) found in human pyramidal cells8 promotes backpropagation of action potentials and increases excitability in human dendrites13,29 relative to rodent dendrites having larger Cm.”
From Transcriptomic and morphophysiological evidence for a specialized human cortical GABAergic cell type (2018) · cites this paper as [8]
RCs may provide supplementary inhibitory control required to balance the potentially higher excitability in human dendrites and modulate interactions between long-range excitatory connections arriving to layer 1 and backpropagating action potentials.
“Thus, RCs may provide supplementary inhibitory control required to balance the potentially higher excitability in human dendrites8 and modulate interactions between long range excitatory connections arriving to layer 1 and backpropagating action potentials suggested to participate in interhemispheric modulation45.”
From Transcriptomic and morphophysiological evidence for a specialized human cortical GABAergic cell type (2018) · cites this paper as [8]
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References 64 · Cited by 196
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Lorensen WE Cline HE 1987 Marching cubes: a high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm ACM Siggraph Computer Graphics 163 169
- Authors
- Eyal, G., Verhoog, M. B., Testa-Silva, G., Deitcher, Y., Lodder, J. C., Benavides-Piccione, R., Morales, J., DeFelipe, J., de Kock, C. P., Mansvelder, H. D., & Segev, I.
- Affiliations
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Instituto Cajal, Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES)
- Instituto Cajal (ES)
- Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Segev, Idan
- ORCID
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2016-10-06
- Volume
- 5
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5100995
- OpenAlex
- W2529356830
- Cited by
- 196
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 9.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (the Cajal Blue Brain (C080020-09; the Spanish partner of the Blue Brain initiative from EPFL))
- European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ((FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement mo. 604102 (Human Brain Project))
- Hersenstichting Nederland (grant HSN 2010(1)-09)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO; 917.76.360, NWO; 912.06.148, NWO; VICI grant)
- European Research Council (BrainSignals 281443)
- Human Brain Project (grant agreement no. 604102)
- Gatsby Charitable Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ion channel regulation and function
- Keywords
- membrane capacitance, human neocortex, layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons, temporal cortex, neuronal membrane properties, spike propagation, voltage transients, human brain evolution
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Adult, Aged, 80 and over, Animals, Axons, Cell Membrane, Dendrites, Female, Humans, Male, Microtomy, Middle Aged, Models, Neurological, Temporal Lobe, Pyramidal Cells, Patch-Clamp Techniques, Neocortex, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Mice
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