Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Barcelona βeta Brain Research Center, Barcelona, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 4;11(1):19692. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-99082-6.
The relationship between human brain connectomics and genetic evolutionary traits remains elusive due to the inherent challenges in combining complex associations within cerebral tissue. In this study, insights are provided about the relationship between connectomics, gene expression and divergent evolutionary pathways from non-human primates to humans. Using in vivo human brain resting-state data, we detected two co-existing idiosyncratic functional systems: the segregation network, in charge of module specialization, and the integration network, responsible for information flow. Their topology was approximated to whole-brain genetic expression (Allen Human Brain Atlas) and the co-localization patterns yielded that neuron communication functionalities-linked to Neuron Projection-were overrepresented cell traits. Homologue-orthologue comparisons using dN/dS-ratios bridged the gap between neurogenetic outcomes and biological data, summarizing the known evolutionary divergent pathways within the Homo Sapiens lineage. Evidence suggests that a crosstalk between functional specialization and information flow reflects putative biological qualities of brain architecture, such as neurite cellular functions like axonal or dendrite processes, hypothesized to have been selectively conserved in the species through positive selection. These findings expand our understanding of human brain function and unveil aspects of our cognitive trajectory in relation to our simian ancestors previously left unexplored.
由于在脑组织中结合复杂关联存在固有挑战,人类大脑连接组学和遗传进化特征之间的关系仍然难以捉摸。在这项研究中,我们深入了解了连接组学、基因表达以及从非人类灵长类动物到人之间不同进化途径之间的关系。使用人类大脑静息状态的体内数据,我们检测到了两个共存的特质功能系统:负责模块专业化的分离网络和负责信息流的整合网络。它们的拓扑结构被近似于全脑基因表达(Allen 人类大脑图谱),并且共定位模式表明与神经元投射相关的神经元通信功能被过度代表为细胞特征。使用 dN/dS-比值进行同源-同系比较,弥合了神经遗传学结果与生物学数据之间的差距,总结了人类谱系内已知的进化分歧途径。有证据表明,功能专业化和信息流之间的串扰反映了大脑结构的潜在生物学特性,例如轴突或树突过程等神经元细胞功能,据推测,这些功能在物种中通过正选择得到了选择性保存。这些发现扩展了我们对人类大脑功能的理解,并揭示了我们与灵长类祖先相关的认知轨迹的方面,这些方面以前是未被探索的。