Homolog of mammalian neocortex found in bird brain
Monday, October 1, 2012 - 15:00
in Biology & Nature
Most higher-order processing by the human and mammalian brain is thought to occur in the neocortex, a structure on the surface of the brain. Now researchers have found cells similar to those of the mammalian neocortex in a vastly different anatomical structure in bird brains. This confirms a 50-year-old hypothesis that provoked decades of debate, sheds light on the evolution of the brain, and suggests new animal models for the neocortex.