Scientists reveal the hidden instructions that build the human brain

UCLA researchers have discovered two powerful influences that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Radial glia, stem cells responsible for producing much of the cerebral cortex, change their behavior depending on how they process glucose and on physical contact with signals arriving from the thalamus. Those signals can alter which types of neurons are produced, including upper-layer neurons that are especially prominent in humans.

Scientists reveal the hidden instructions that build the human brain. Scientists reveal the hidden instructions that build the human brain Science News from research organizations Scientists reveal the hidden instructions that build the human brain Scientists have revealed that the human brain’s earliest stem cells use both nutrients and physical signals to decide what kinds of brain cells to build. At the center of this process are radial glia, a special type of stem cell that helps create many of the features that distinguish the human brain.

These cells produce large numbers of the neurons and support cells that make up the cerebral cortex, the brain region involved in thought, memory, and language. Radial glia are also believed to contribute to the unusually large expansion of the human cortex compared with that of other species. Although most disappear before birth, similar cells can later appear again in brain cancers for reasons scientists still do not fully understand.

"Radial glia are the coolest cells that have ever existed," said Aparna Bhaduri, an assistant professor of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.