Adam Stocker published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE

Adam Stocker published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE

Adam Stocker, Biosciences, had a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE titled: “Emx1 is Required for Neocortical Area Patterning.” The published findings identify a new gene that participates in specifying functional areas in the developing neocortex.

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 functional regions called areas that are responsible for processing and/or integrating information. Sensory information is initially processed by regions called primary sensory areas, which receive information from the corresponding sensory organs (e.g. eyes). Disruptions to the development of these functional regions are associated with brain disorders such as autism. Previous investigation has identified four different genes that play a definitive role in area pattering (i.e. the process of specifying areas during development). The experiments detailed in this publication demonstrate that Emx1 is a new area patterning gene, only the fifth such gene with this identified function.

PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science) is an open access journal, meaning access to the published paper is free. The co-author on this work was Dennis O’Leary at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.