Adam Stocker published in the peer-reviewed journal

Adam Stocker published in the peer-reviewed journal

Adam Stocker, Biosciences, had a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal eLife titled: “Genetic mechanisms control the linear scaling between related cortical primary and higher order sensory areas.” The published findings reveal a previously unknown relationship between the size of primary sensory areas and higher order areas controlled by gene expression during embryonic development.

The neocortex is the most recently evolved and the most iconic part of the human brain (i.e. it is the large wrinkled portion). The neocortex is associated with higher thought processes, including language and the processing of information from our senses. The anatomy of the neocortex is organized into different regions called ‘primary areas’ and ‘higher order areas’, and disruptions to this organization are associated with brain disorders such as autism. There are many more higher order areas than primary areas in a mammalian brain. However, while primary areas are known to be specified by developmental genes in the embryo, little is known about how the development of higher order areas is controlled. The experiments detailed in the publication demonstrate that altering the expression of the gene Emx2 causes changes to higher order areas that are of a similar magnitude to those observed in primary areas. These published findings reveal a previously unknown linear relationship between the size of the primary visual area and higher order visual areas that is controlled by the genes that pattern the neocortex during embryonic development.

eLife is an open access journal, meaning access to the published paper is free. Co-authors on this work were Andreas Zembrzycki, Axel Leingärtner, Setsuko Sahara, Shen-Ju, Scott May, and Dennis O’Leary either currently or formerly at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Valery Kalatsky and Michael Stryker at the University of California, San Francisco.