Cortical evolution: judge the brain by its cover.

TL;DR: Similarities in neocortical circuit organization across areas and species suggest a common strategy to process diverse types of information, including sensation from diverse modalities, motor control and higher cognitive processes.

TL;DR: Current understanding of the genetic architecture of ASD is reviewed and genetic evidence, neuropathology and studies in model systems with how they inform mechanistic models of ASD pathophysiology are integrated.

TL;DR: The generation and analysis of a variety of genomic data modalities at the tissue and single-cell levels, including transcriptome, DNA methylation, and histone modifications across multiple brain regions ranging in age from embryonic development through adulthood, reveal insights into neurodevelopment and the genomic basis of neuropsychiatric risks.

TL;DR: Recent advancements in the understanding of the molecular and cellular landscapes of the developing human CNS, with focus on the cerebral neocortex, are highlighted and the insights these findings provide into human neural evolution, function, and dysfunction are highlighted.

TL;DR: A digital atlas of in vivo enhancers active in subregions of the developing telencephalon, identifying more than 4,600 candidate embryonic forebrain enhancers and studying the in vivo activity of 329 of these sequences in transgenic mouse embryos is described.

TL;DR: Using massively parallel sequencing to compare the microRNA content of human and chimpanzee brains, 447 new miRNA genes are identified, suggesting that evolution of miRNAs is an ongoing process and that along with ancient, highly conserved mi RNAs, there are a number of emerging miRNas.

TL;DR: New information is provided about radial glial cells in common marmosets, a near-lissencephalic primate, and in agouti, aNear-gyrencephalic rodent, that demonstrate that bRG are abundant and proliferate in inner as well as oSVZ, in both species, and that differential regulation of bRG and other progenitor types may enhance the adaptability and diversity of cortical morphogenesis.

TL;DR: From a perspective of brain growth understood in terms of the development of networks of cortical cell minicolumns, the elemental information-processing units of the brain, this perspective provides a conceptual framework for a better understanding of the origin and maladaptive nature of certain psychiatric conditions.