Human pyramidal neurons are 3 times larger than mouse and monkey

28 June 2016
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Hemanth Mohan and Thijs Verhoog published their paper reporting the first full quantitative neuronal morphologies of human pyramidal neurons including dendrites as well as axons.

Hemanth Mohan and Thijs Verhoog published their paper reporting the first full quantitative neuronal morphologies of human pyramidal neurons including dendrites as well as axons. By comparing them to mouse and monkey pyramidal neurons, they found that human pyramidal neurons have 3 times more dendrite than mouse and monkey pyramidal neurons have. In addition, human pyramidal neurons have more and longer dendritic segments. Unsupervised cluster analysis classified 88% of human L2 and L3 neurons into human-specific clusters distinct from mouse and monkey neurons. Thijs and Hemanth conclude that human neurons are not “scaled-up” versions of rodent or monkey neurons, but have unique structural and functional properties.

doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv188