Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
Science. 2023 Oct 13;382(6667):eadf6812. doi: 10.1126/science.adf6812.
Variation in cytoarchitecture is the basis for the histological definition of cortical areas. We used single cell transcriptomics and performed cellular characterization of the human cortex to better understand cortical areal specialization. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing of 8 areas spanning cortical structural variation showed a highly consistent cellular makeup for 24 cell subclasses. However, proportions of excitatory neuron subclasses varied substantially, likely reflecting differences in connectivity across primary sensorimotor and association cortices. Laminar organization of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes also differed across areas. Primary visual cortex showed characteristic organization with major changes in the excitatory to inhibitory neuron ratio, expansion of layer 4 excitatory neurons, and specialized inhibitory neurons. These results lay the groundwork for a refined cellular and molecular characterization of human cortical cytoarchitecture and areal specialization.
细胞结构的变异是皮质区域组织学定义的基础。我们使用单细胞转录组学并对人类大脑皮层进行细胞特征分析，以更好地理解大脑皮层区域专门化。对跨越皮质结构变异的 8 个区域的单个核 RNA 测序显示，24 个细胞亚类具有高度一致的细胞组成。然而，兴奋性神经元亚类的比例有很大差异，这可能反映了主要感觉运动和联合皮层之间的连接差异。星形胶质细胞和少突胶质细胞的层状组织也因区域而异。初级视觉皮层表现出特征性的组织，表现为兴奋性神经元与抑制性神经元比例的显著变化，4 层兴奋性神经元的扩展，以及专门的抑制性神经元。这些结果为人类大脑皮层细胞结构和区域专门化的精细细胞和分子特征分析奠定了基础。
