New study finds important differences between human brains and primates

According to news on October 13, the latest scientific research project released a human brain cell atlas, which is regarded as a milestone. The study detailedly characterized more than 3,000 human brain cell types, revealing key differences between human brain cells and those of other primates. Compared with previously published research papers, this new research and data present eye-catching new findings, deeply exploring the composition of nervous system cells in various regions of the human brain and their unique features

According to the editor’s understanding, an important goal of the project is to determine which brain cell characteristics are unique to humans and different from non-human primates. One study used comparative single-nucleus transcriptomics in adult humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, rhesus monkeys, and common rhesus monkeys to address this question. The findings show that although chimpanzees and humans have a more recent common ancestor, chimpanzee neurons are more similar to gorilla neurons than to human ones. Other studies have further explored the differences between chimpanzees and humans. How complex cellular arrangements form in the earliest stages of life, revealing the cellular state of the human brain during the first three months of pregnancy It is part of the Brain Cell Census Network (BICCN) project of the Brain Research Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative of the Institute of Health, which was launched in 2017. Joseph Eck, director of the Salk Genome Analysis Laboratory in the United States and a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said that this result marks "the beginning of a new era in brain science." Liu Shiping, chief scientist and researcher of brain science at the Shenzhen BGI Life Sciences Institute, emphasized that this study provides valuable information for a deep understanding of the structure and function of the human brain and is expected to play a key role in future research and clinical applications.

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