Brain Behavior and Evolution最新文献

This essay re-examines the singular case of the supposedly unique rostrally elongated notochord described classically in amphioxus. We start from our previous observations in hpf 21 larvae [Albuixech-Crespo et al.: PLoS Biol. 2017;15(4):e2001573] indicating that the brain vesicle has rostrally a rather standard hypothalamic molecular configuration. This correlates with the notochord across a possible rostromedian acroterminal hypothalamic domain. The notochord shows some molecular differences that specifically characterize its pre-acroterminal extension beyond its normal rostral end under the mamillary region. We explored an alternative interpretation that the putative extension of this notochord actually represents a variant form of the prechordal plate in amphioxus, some of whose cells would adopt the notochordal typology, but would lack notochordal patterning properties, and might have some (but not all) prechordal ones instead. We survey in detail the classic and recent literature on gastrulation, prechordal plate, and notochord formation in amphioxus, compare the observed patterns with those of some other vertebrates of interest, and re-examine the literature on differential gene expression patterns in this rostralmost area of the head. We noted that previous literature failed to identify the amphioxus prechordal primordia at appropriate stages. Under this interpretation, a consistent picture can be drawn for cephalochordates, tunicates, and vertebrates. Moreover, there is little evidence for an intrinsic capacity of the early notochord to grow rostralwards (it normally elongates caudalwards). Altogether, we conclude that the hypothesis of a prechordal nature of the elongated amphioxus notochord is consistent with the evidence presented.

Recent studies on the differences in cognitive ability between individuals focused on two aspects: one is whether the individual differences in cognitive ability are related to brain size, the other is whether they pertain to certain personality traits. To explore these two hypotheses, we tested the personality traits, cognitive abilities, and brain volumes of western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). First, a color preference test was conducted to select two unbiased colors for G. affinis for subsequent cognitive tests. The results showed that G. affinis had a great preference for red and green to yellow and blue; therefore, the red-green combination was selected for the study of cognitive abilities. Then, we explored the relationship among cognition, personality, and brain morphology through cognitive abilities tests, personality traits, and brain volume measurements. We found that there was a trade-off among cognition, personality, and brain morphology. For example, more active individuals found food faster, but had also poor memory; Those individuals with larger corpus cerebelli were bolder while they were less likely to find food; The individuals that found food faster were more active and had a smaller inferior lobe. The color preference test provides a reliable way for selecting unbiased colors for behavioral studies in G. affinis. Meanwhile, our study indicates that there exists a balance mechanism among cognition, personality, and brain morphology.

The amygdaloid complex plays a crucial role in socio-emotional conduct, learning, survival, and reproductive behaviors. It is constituted by a set of nuclei presenting a great cellular heterogeneity and embryonic origin diversity (pallial, subpallial, and even extra-telencephalic). In the last two decades, the tetrapartite pallial paradigm defined the pallial portion of the amygdala as a derivative of the lateroventral pallium. However, the pallial conception is currently being reanalyzed and one of these new proposals is to consider the mouse pallial amygdala as a radial histogenetic domain independent from the rest of the pallial subdomains. In anamniotes, and particularly in amphibian anurans, the amygdaloid complex was described as a region with pallial and subpallial components similar to those described in amniotes. In the present study carried out in Xenopus laevis, after a detailed analysis of the orientation of the amygdalar radial glia, we propose an additional amygdala derived from the pallial region. It is independent of the vomeronasal/olfactory amygdaloid nuclei described in anurans, expresses markers such as Lhx9 present in the mammalian pallial amygdala, and lacks Otp-expressing cells, detected in the adjacent medial amygdala. Further studies are needed to clarify the functional involvement of this area, and whether it is a derivative of the adjacent ventral pallium or an independent pallial domain.

The amygdala, a complex array of nuclei in the forebrain, controls emotions and emotion-related behaviors in vertebrates. Current research aims to understand the amygdala's evolution in ray-finned fish such as zebrafish because of the region's relevance for social behavior and human psychiatric disorders. Clear-cut molecular definitions of the amygdala and its evolutionary-developmental relationship to the one of mammals are critical for zebrafish models of affective disorders and autism. In this review, I argue that the prosomeric model and a focus on the olfactory system's organization provide ideal tools for discovering deep ancestral relationships between the emotional systems of zebrafish and mammals. The review's focus is on the "extended amygdala," which refers to subpallial amygdaloid territories including the central (autonomic) and the medial (olfactory) amygdala required for reproductive and social behaviors. Amphibians, sauropsids, and lungfish share many characteristics with the basic amygdala ground plan of mammals, as molecular and hodological studies have shown. Further exploration of the evolution of the amygdala in basally derived fish vertebrates requires researchers to test these "tetrapod-based" concepts. Historically, this has been a daunting task because the forebrains of basally derived fish vertebrates look very different from those of more familiar tetrapod ones. An extreme case are ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) like zebrafish because their telencephalon develops through a distinct outward-growing process called eversion. To this day, scientists have struggled to determine how the everted telencephalon compares to non-actinopterygian vertebrates. Using the teleost zebrafish as a genetic model, comparative neurologists began to establish quantifiable molecular definitions that allow direct comparisons between ray-finned fish and tetrapods. In this review, I discuss how the most recent discovery of the zebrafish amygdala ground plan offers an opportunity to identify the developmental constraints of amygdala evolution and function. In addition, I explain how the zebrafish prethalamic eminence (PThE) topologically relates to the medial amygdala proper and the nucleus of the lateral olfactory tract (nLOT). In fact, I consider these previously misinterpreted olfactory structures the most critical missing evolutionary links between actinopterygian and tetrapod amygdalae. In this context, I will also explain why recognizing both the PThE and the nLOT is crucial to understanding the telencephalon eversion. Recognizing these anatomical hallmarks allows direct comparisons of the amygdalae of zebrafish and mammals. Ultimately, the new concepts of the zebrafish amygdala will overcome current dogmas and reach a holistic understanding of amygdala circuits of cognition and emotion in actinopterygians.

Why do some species develop rapidly, while others develop slowly? Mammals are highly variable in the pace of growth and development over every stage of ontogeny, and this basic variable - the pace of ontogeny - is strongly associated with a wide range of phenotypes in adults, including allometric patterns of brain and body size, as well as the pace of neurodevelopment. This analysis describes variation in the pace of embryonic development in eutherian mammals, drawing on a collected dataset of embryogenesis in fifteen species representing rodents, carnivores, ungulates, and primates. Mammals vary in the pace of every stage of embryogenesis, including stages of early zygote differentiation, blastulation and implantation, gastrulation, neurulation, somitogenesis, and later stages of basic limb, facial, and brain development. This comparative review focuses on the general variation of rapid vs. slow mammalian embryogenesis, with a focus on the pace of somite formation, brain vs. somatic development, and how embryonic pacing predicts later features of ontogeny.

The pallium is the largest part of the telencephalon in amniotes, and comparison of its subdivisions across species has been extremely difficult and controversial due to its high divergence. Comparative embryonic genoarchitecture studies have greatly contributed to propose models of pallial fundamental divisions, which can be compared across species and be used to extract general organizing principles as well as to ask more focused and insightful research questions. The use of these models is crucial to discern between conservation, convergence or divergence in the neural populations and networks found in the pallium. Here we provide a critical review of the models proposed using this approach, including tetrapartite, hexapartite and double-ring models, and compare them to other models. While recognizing the power of these models for understanding brain architecture, development and evolution, we also highlight limitations and comment on aspects that require attention for improvement. We also discuss on the use of transcriptomic data for understanding pallial evolution and advise for better contextualization of these data by discerning between gene regulatory networks involved in the generation of specific units and cell populations versus genes expressed later, many of which are activity dependent and their expression is more likely subjected to convergent evolution.

Comparative neurobiologists have long wondered when and how the dorsal pallium (e.g., mammalian neocortex) evolved. For the last 50 years, the most widely accepted answer has been that this structure was already present in the earliest vertebrates and, therefore, homologous between the major vertebrate lineages. One challenge for this hypothesis is that the olfactory bulbs project throughout most of the pallium in the most basal vertebrate lineages (notably lampreys, hagfishes, and lungfishes) but do not project to the putative dorsal pallia in teleosts, cartilaginous fishes, and amniotes (i.e., reptiles, birds, and mammals). To make sense of these data, one may hypothesize that a dorsal pallium existed in the earliest vertebrates and received extensive olfactory input, which was subsequently lost in several lineages. However, the dorsal pallium is notoriously difficult to delineate in many vertebrates, and its homology between the various lineages is often based on little more than its topology. Therefore, we suspect that dorsal pallia evolved independently in teleosts, cartilaginous fishes, and amniotes. We further hypothesize that the emergence of these dorsal pallia was accompanied by the phylogenetic restriction of olfactory projections to the pallium and the expansion of inputs from other sensory modalities. We do not deny that the earliest vertebrates may have possessed nonolfactory sensory inputs to some parts of the pallium, but such projections alone do not define a dorsal pallium.

Behavioral phenotypes play an active role in maximizing fitness and shaping the evolutionary trajectory of species by offsetting the ecological and social environmental factors individuals experience. How these phenotypes evolve and how they are expressed is still a major question in ethology today. In recent years, an increased focus on the mechanisms that regulate the interactions between an individual and its environment has offered novel insights into the expression of alternative phenotypes. In this review, we explore the proximate mechanisms driving the expression of alternative reproductive phenotypes in the male prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) as one example of how the interaction of an individual's social context and internal milieu has the potential to alter behavior, cognition, and reproductive decision-making. Ultimately, integrating the physiological and psychological mechanisms of behavior advances understanding into how variation in behavior arises. We take a "levels of biological organization" approach, with prime focus placed on the level of the organism to discuss how cognitive processes emerge as traits, and how they can be studied as important mechanisms driving the expression of behavior.

Cajal-Retzius cells are essential for cortical development in mammals, and their involvement in the evolution of this structure has been widely postulated, but very little is known about their progenitor domains in non-mammalian vertebrates. Using in situhybridization and immunofluorescence techniques we analyzed the expression of some of the main Cajal-Retzius cell markers such as Dbx1, Ebf3, ER81, Lhx1, Lhx5, p73, Reelin, Wnt3a, Zic1, and Zic2 in the forebrain of the anuran Xenopus laevis, because amphibians are the only class of anamniote tetrapods and show a tetrapartite evaginated pallium, but no layered or nuclear organization. Our results suggested that the Cajal-Retzius cell progenitor domains were comparable to those previously described in amniotes. Thus, at dorsomedial telencephalic portions a region comparable to the cortical hem was defined in Xenopus based on the expression of Wnt3a, p73, Reelin, Zic1, and Zic2. In the septum, two different domains were observed: a periventricular dorsal septum, at the limit between the pallium and the subpallium, expressing Reelin, Zic1, and Zic2, and a related septal domain, expressing Ebf3, Zic1, and Zic2. In the lateral telencephalon, the ventral pallium next to the pallio-subpallial boundary, the lack of Dbx1 and the unique expression of Reelin during development defined this territory as the most divergent with respect to mammals. Finally, we also analyzed the expression of these markers at the prethalamic eminence region, suggested as Cajal-Retzius progenitor domain in amniotes, observing there Zic1, Zic2, ER81, and Lhx1 expression. Our data show that in anurans there are different subtypes and progenitor domains of Cajal-Retzius cells, which probably contribute to the cortical regional specification and territory-specific properties. This supports the notion that the basic organization of pallial derivatives in vertebrates follows a comparable fundamental arrangement, even in those that do not have a sophisticated stratified cortical structure like the mammalian cerebral cortex.