We are very grateful that the BBSRC is funding our investigation into the role of neuronal activity in the wiring rules of brain development. This project will help us better understand how the human brain develops and whether it follows the same rules as found in mice, or whether these are distinctive, perhaps even unique.”
Professor Laura Andreae, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at King’s
08 November 2024
Researchers awarded BBSRC grant to investigate the role of neuronal activity in brain development.
The project will look at how brain connections are formed in the early stage of development in mouse and human.
Researchers from the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, Professor Laura Andreae and Dr Katie Long, will carry out the project Activity Dependence and Species Effects in Rodent and Human Local Cortical Wiring Rules. The project receives funding from the UK Research and Innovation’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Neuronal cells in the brain are connected to each other by trillions of synapses, but the rules governing how these connections are formed in the mammalian cortex are not well understood. It was previously believed that neuronal activity, the electrical and chemical signals generated and transmitted by the brain, is responsible for the later maintenance or pruning of excessive connections.
However, researchers in this project have found a very early window in development where a specific type of neuronal activity, the spontaneous release of the chemical messenger called glutamate, can drive synapse formation in the mouse hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
Based on this preliminary insight, researchers aim to see if this neuronal activity occurs and whether it results in the same wiring in the early development of the human hippocampus. This will allow researchers to understand the extent of evolutionary conservation of these neuronal activities across species.
They will then explore whether the same rules apply in the neocortex, the part of the human brain that is evolutionarily newer than the hippocampus and is responsible for many aspects of cognition. This will tell us whether different brain regions in the cortex wire up differently, or follow the same rules. Findings from this part of the study will then be validated in mice in vivo.
The project sits within the BBSRC research priority ‘understanding the rules of life’, part of ‘Advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery’. It will commence in November 2024 and received funding for 36 months.
For more information, please contact Annora Thoeng (Communications Manager - School of Neuroscience)
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Professor of Developmental Neuroscience
Research Fellow