Sexually dimorphic anatomy of brain areas is thought to be causally linked to sex differences in behaviour and cognitive functions. The sex with the regional size advantage (male or female) differs between brain areas and species. Among adult songbirds, males have larger brain areas such as the HVC (proper name) and RA (robust nucleus of the arcopallium) that control the production of learned songs. Forest weavers (Ploceus bicolor) mated pairs sing a unison duet in which male and female mates learn to produce identical songs. We show with histological techniques that the volume and neuron numbers of HVC and RA were > or =1.5 times larger in males than in females despite their identical songs. In contrast, using in-situ hybridizations, females have much higher (30-70%) expression levels of mRNA of a number of synapse-related proteins in HVC and/or RA than their male counterparts. Male-typical and female-typical sexual differentiation appears to act on different aspects of the phenotypes within the same brain areas, leading females and males to produce the same behaviour using different cellular mechanisms.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2518117 | PMC |
| http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003073 | PLOS |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Imagine going left versus imagine going right: whole-body motion on the lateral axis.
Sci Rep
December 2024
Creative Robotics Lab, UNSW, Sydney, 2021, Australia.
Unlike the conventional, embodied, and embrained whole-body movements in the sagittal forward and vertical axes, movements in the lateral/transversal axis cannot be unequivocally grounded, embodied, or embrained. When considering motor imagery for left and right directions, it is assumed that participants have underdeveloped representations due to a lack of familiarity with moving along the lateral axis. In the current study, a 32 electroencephalography (EEG) system was used to identify the oscillatory neural signature linked with lateral axis motor imagery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeep learning models reveal the link between dynamic brain connectivity patterns and states of consciousness.
Sci Rep
December 2024
BAOBAB Unit, NeuroSpin center, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Decoding states of consciousness from brain activity is a central challenge in neuroscience. Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) allows the study of short-term temporal changes in functional connectivity (FC) between distributed brain areas. By clustering dFC matrices from resting-state fMRI, we previously described "brain patterns" that underlie different functional configurations of the brain at rest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeripheral contributions to resting state brain dynamics.
Nat Commun
December 2024
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, US.
The correlational structure of brain activity dynamics in the absence of stimuli or behavior is often taken to reveal intrinsic properties of neural function. To test the limits of this assumption, we analyzed peripheral contributions to resting state activity measured by fMRI in unanesthetized, chemically immobilized male rats that emulate human neuroimaging conditions. We find that perturbation of somatosensory input channels modifies correlation strengths that relate somatosensory areas both to one another and to higher-order brain regions, despite the absence of ostensible stimuli or movements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigher skeletal muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity is associated with preserved brain structure up to over a decade.
Nat Commun
December 2024
Longitudinal Studies Section, Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Impaired muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity is associated with future cognitive impairment, and higher levels of PET and blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration. Here, we examine its associations with up to over a decade-long changes in brain atrophy and microstructure. Higher in vivo skeletal muscle oxidative capacity via MR spectroscopy (post-exercise recovery rate, k) is associated with less ventricular enlargement and brain aging progression, and less atrophy in specific regions, notably primary sensorimotor cortex, temporal white and gray matter, thalamus, occipital areas, cingulate cortex, and cerebellum white matter.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurochemical Databases: Purpose and Expectations.
ACS Chem Neurosci
December 2024
University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences Intégratives et Cognitives d'Aquitaine INCIA CNRS UMR5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
The exploration of increasingly specific brain structures and their relationships, in more nuanced ways, has facilitated the generation of databases for gene expression, connectivity, cell morphology, and electrophysiology. However, neurochemistry, the study of neurochemical environment and transmission, has not yet warranted a public database, despite the plethora of data published. From our viewpoint, a neurochemical database is overdue and would allow the field of neurochemistry to develop facilitating, standardization and reference values, reproducibility, resource efficiency, preservation and accessibility of raw data, hypothesis development and exploration, and metadata analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!