“We tested the controversial hypothesis that mammalian brain parts scale conservatively with brain size because of developmental constraints on size-dependent, neurogenetic patterns. Early cell-level constraint should be reflected in conserved patterns of mammalian brain partition growth, but the data required to test this expectation have been unavailable. The hydrogel/DiceCT technique, however, represents a fast way of measuring growth in minute brains, allowing us to provide the first quantification of mammalian brain partition growth. Across three marsupial species, we found no evidence of partition growth regularities with brain size or age although intraspecific growth patterns were very regular. This suggests that species-specific brain growth patterns do exist, albeit not as part of a global pattern of evolutionary developmental constraint.”
– Project Leader, Vera Weisbecker
Visit the the University of Queensland Centre for Advanced Imaging online and read the open access paper at Scientific Reports!
DiceCT 