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Review ARTICLE

This article is part of a Research Topic

A comparative perspective on minicolumns and inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the neocortex

Mary Ann Raghanti¹*, Muhammad A. Spocter², Camilla Butti³, Patrick R. Hof^3,4 and Chet C. Sherwood²

Department of Anthropology and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA

Neocortical columns are functional and morphological units whose architecture may have been under selective evolutionary pressure in different mammalian lineages in response to encephalization and specializations of cognitive abilities. Inhibitory interneurons make a substantial contribution to the morphology and distribution of minicolumns within the cortex. In this context, we review differences in minicolumns and GABAergic interneurons among species and discuss possible implications for signaling among and within minicolumns. Furthermore, we discuss how abnormalities of both minicolumn disposition and inhibitory interneurons might be associated with neuropathological processes, such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and schizophrenia. Specifically, we explore the possibility that phylogenetic variability in calcium-binding protein-expressing interneuron subtypes is directly related to differences in minicolumn morphology among species and might contribute to neuropathological susceptibility in humans.

Keywords:

calcium-binding proteins, calbindin, calretinin, parvalbumin, neuropathology, evolution

Citation:

Raghanti MA, Spocter MA, Butti C, Hof PR and Sherwood CC (2010). A comparative perspective on minicolumns and inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the neocortex. Front. Neuroanat. 4:3. doi: 10.3389/neuro.05.003.2010

Received:

01 December 2009;

Paper pending published:

15 December 2009;

Accepted:

07 January 2010;

Published online:

05 February 2010.

Edited by:

Javier DeFelipe, Cajal Institute, Spain

Reviewed by:

Manuel Casanova, University of Louisville, USA
Javier DeFelipe, Cajal Institute, Spain

© 2010 Raghanti, Spocter, Butti, Hof and Sherwood. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

*Correspondence:

Mary Ann Raghanti, Department of Anthropology, 226 Lowry Hall, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA. e-mail: mraghant@kent.edu