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: The performance artist Laurie Anderson referred to her father's death as being "like a library burning to the ground" as mentioned in this paper, and the higher functions of human beings make up such a collection of texts and we are perhaps approaching some knowledge of their titles.

TL;DR: This work analyzed gene coexpression relationships in microarray data generated from specific human brain regions and identified modules of coexpressed genes that correspond to neurons, oligodendrocytes, astroCytes and microglia, providing an initial description of the transcriptional programs that distinguish the major cell classes of the human brain.

TL;DR: It is suggested that a critical mass of cortical synapses is important for the emergence of this cognitive function, and that fully mature capacity may depend upon the elimination of excess synapses that occurs during adolescence and young adulthood.

TL;DR: A comparison of protein coding genes reveals approximately 500 genes showing accelerated evolution on each of the gorilla, human and chimpanzee lineages, and evidence for parallel acceleration, particularly of genes involved in hearing.