Oxygen and the Spark of Human Brain Evolution: Complex Interactions of Metabolism and Cortical Expansion across Development and Evolution

Scientific theories on the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain require an understanding of its development-before and after birth and through maturation to adulthood-and its evolution. Here we bring together several accounts of human brain evolution by focusing on the central role of oxygen and brain metabolism. We argue that evolutionary expansion of human transmodal association cortices exceeded the capacity of oxygen delivery by the vascular system, which led these brain tissues to rely on nonoxidative glycolysis for additional energy supply. We draw a link between the resulting lower oxygen tension and its effect on cytoarchitecture, which we posit as a key driver of genetic developmental programs for the human brain-favoring lower intracortical myelination and the presence of biosynthetic materials for synapse turnover. Across biological and temporal scales, this protracted capacity for neural plasticity sets the conditions for cognitive flexibility and ongoing learning, supporting complex group dynamics and intergenerational learning that in turn enabled improved nutrition to fuel the metabolic costs of further cortical expansion. Our proposed model delineates explicit mechanistic links among metabolism, molecular and cellular brain heterogeneity, and behavior, which may lead toward a clearer understanding of brain development and its disorders.

A role for the serotonin 2A receptor in the expansion and functioning of human transmodal cortex

Integrating independent but converging lines of research on brain function and neurodevelopment across scales, this article proposes that serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) signalling is an evolutionary and developmental driver and potent modulator of the macroscale functional organization of the human cerebral cortex. A wealth of evidence indicates that the anatomical and functional organization of the cortex follows a unimodal-to-transmodal gradient. Situated at the apex of this processing hierarchy-where it plays a central role in the integrative processes underpinning complex, human-defining cognition-the transmodal cortex has disproportionately expanded across human development and evolution. Notably, the adult human transmodal cortex is especially rich in 5-HT2AR expression and recent evidence suggests that, during early brain development, 5-HT2AR signalling on neural progenitor cells stimulates their proliferation-a critical process for evolutionarily-relevant cortical expansion. Drawing on multimodal neuroimaging and cross-species investigations, we argue that, by contributing to the expansion of the human cortex and being prevalent at the apex of its hierarchy in the adult brain, 5-HT2AR signalling plays a major role in both human cortical expansion and functioning. Owing to its unique excitatory and downstream cellular effects, neuronal 5-HT2AR agonism promotes neuroplasticity, learning and cognitive and psychological flexibility in a context-(hyper)sensitive manner with therapeutic potential. Overall, we delineate a dual role of 5-HT2ARs in enabling both the expansion and modulation of the human transmodal cortex.

Callosal Fiber Length Scales with Brain Size According to Functional Lateralization, Evolution, and Development

Brain size significantly impacts the organization of white matter fibers. Fiber length scaling, the degree to which fiber length varies according to brain size, was overlooked. We investigated how fiber lengths within the corpus callosum, the most prominent white matter tract, vary according to brain size. The results showed substantial variation in length scaling among callosal fibers, replicated in two large healthy cohorts (∼2000 human subjects, including both sexes). The underscaled callosal fibers mainly connected the precentral gyrus and parietal cortices, whereas the overscaled callosal fibers mainly connected the prefrontal cortices. The variation in such length scaling was biologically meaningful: larger scaling corresponded to larger neurite density index but smaller fractional anisotropy values; cortical regions connected by the callosal fibers with larger scaling were more lateralized functionally as well as phylogenetically and ontogenetically more recent than their counterparts. These findings highlight an interaction between interhemispheric communication and organizational and adaptive principles underlying brain development and evolution.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Brain size varies across evolution, development, and individuals. Relative to small brains, the neural fiber length in large brains is inevitably increased, but the degree of such increase may differ between fiber tracts. Such a difference, if it exists, is valuable for understanding adaptive neural principles in large versus small brains during evolution and development. The present study showed a substantial difference in the length increase between the callosal fibers that connect the two hemispheres, replicated in two large healthy cohorts. Together, our study demonstrates that reorganization of interhemispheric fibers length according to brain size is intrinsically related to fiber composition, functional lateralization, cortical myelin content, and evolutionary and developmental expansion.

The human FOXM1 homolog promotes basal progenitor cell proliferation and cortical folding in mouse

Cortical expansion and folding are key processes in human brain development and evolution and are considered to be principal elements of intellectual ability. How cortical folding has evolved and is induced during embryo development is not well understood. Here, we show that the expression of human FOXM1 promotes basal progenitor cell proliferation and induces cortical thickening and folding in mice. Human-specific protein sequences further promote the generation of basal progenitor cells. Human FOXM1 increases the proliferation of neural progenitors by binding to the Lin28a promoter and increasing Lin28a expression. Furthermore, overexpression of LIN28A rescues the proliferation of human FOXM1 knockout neural progenitor cells. Together, our findings demonstrate that a human gene can increase the number of basal progenitor cells in mice, leading to brain size increase and gyrification, and may thus contribute to evolutionary brain development and cortical expansion.

The CTNNBIP1-CLSTN1 fusion transcript regulates human neocortical development

Fusion transcripts or RNAs have been found in both disordered and healthy human tissues and cells; however, their physiological functions in the brain development remain unknown. In the analysis of deposited RNA-sequence libraries covering early to middle embryonic stages, we identify 1,055 fusion transcripts present in the developing neocortex. Interestingly, 98 fusion transcripts exhibit distinct expression patterns in various neural progenitors (NPs) or neurons. We focus on CTNNBIP1-CLSTN1 (CTCL), which is enriched in outer radial glial cells that contribute to cortex expansion during human evolution. Intriguingly, downregulation of CTCL in cultured human cerebral organoids causes marked reduction in NPs and precocious neuronal differentiation, leading to impairment of organoid growth. Furthermore, the expression of CTCL fine-tunes Wnt/β-catenin signaling that controls cortex patterning. Together, this work provides evidence indicating important roles of fusion transcript in human brain development and evolution.

Origins and Proliferative States of Human Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells

Human cerebral cortex size and complexity has increased greatly during evolution. While increased progenitor diversity and enhanced proliferative potential play important roles in human neurogenesis and gray matter expansion, the mechanisms of human oligodendrogenesis and white matter expansion remain largely unknown. Here, we identify EGFR-expressing "Pre-OPCs" that originate from outer radial glial cells (oRGs) and undergo mitotic somal translocation (MST) during division. oRG-derived Pre-OPCs provide an additional source of human cortical oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and define a lineage trajectory. We further show that human OPCs undergo consecutive symmetric divisions to exponentially increase the progenitor pool size. Additionally, we find that the OPC-enriched gene, PCDH15, mediates daughter cell repulsion and facilitates proliferation. These findings indicate properties of OPC derivation, proliferation, and dispersion important for human white matter expansion and myelination.

No relative expansion of the number of prefrontal neurons in primate and human evolution

Human evolution is widely thought to have involved a particular expansion of prefrontal cortex. This popular notion has recently been challenged, although controversies remain. Here we show that the prefrontal region of both human and nonhuman primates holds about 8% of cortical neurons, with no clear difference across humans and other primates in the distribution of cortical neurons or white matter cells along the anteroposterior axis. Further, we find that the volumes of human prefrontal gray and white matter match the expected volumes for the number of neurons in the gray matter and for the number of other cells in the white matter compared with other primate species. These results indicate that prefrontal cortical expansion in human evolution happened along the same allometric trajectory as for other primate species, without modification of the distribution of neurons across its surface or of the volume of the underlying white matter. We thus propose that the most distinctive feature of the human prefrontal cortex is its absolute number of neurons, not its relative volume.

Corticalization of motor control in humans is a consequence of brain scaling in primate evolution

Control over spinal and brainstem somatomotor neurons is exerted by two sets of descending fibers, corticospinal/pyramidal and extrapyramidal. Although in nonhuman primates the effect of bilateral pyramidal lesions is mostly limited to an impairment of the independent use of digits in skilled manual actions, similar injuries in humans result in the locked-in syndrome, a state of mutism and quadriplegia in which communication can be established only by residual vertical eye movements. This behavioral contrast makes humans appear to be outliers compared with other primates because of our almost total dependence on the corticospinal/pyramidal system for the effectuation of movement. Here we propose, instead, that an increasing preponderance of the corticospinal/pyramidal system over motor control is an expected consequence of increasing brain size in primates because of the faster scaling of the number of neurons in the primary motor cortex over the brainstem and spinal cord motor neuron pools, explaining the apparent uniqueness of the corticalization of motor control in humans.

Cellular scaling rules for the brain of Artiodactyla include a highly folded cortex with few neurons

Quantitative analysis of the cellular composition of rodent, primate, insectivore, and afrotherian brains has shown that non-neuronal scaling rules are similar across these mammalian orders that diverged about 95 million years ago, and therefore appear to be conserved in evolution, while neuronal scaling rules appear to be free to vary in a clade-specific manner. Here we analyze the cellular scaling rules that apply to the brain of artiodactyls, a group within the order Cetartiodactyla, believed to be a relatively recent radiation from the common Eutherian ancestor. We find that artiodactyls share non-neuronal scaling rules with all groups analyzed previously. Artiodactyls share with afrotherians and rodents, but not with primates, the neuronal scaling rules that apply to the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. The neuronal scaling rules that apply to the remaining brain areas are, however, distinct in artiodactyls. Importantly, we show that the folding index of the cerebral cortex scales with the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex in distinct fashions across artiodactyls, afrotherians, rodents, and primates, such that the artiodactyl cerebral cortex is more convoluted than primate cortices of similar numbers of neurons. Our findings suggest that the scaling rules found to be shared across modern afrotherians, glires, and artiodactyls applied to the common Eutherian ancestor, such as the relationship between the mass of the cerebral cortex as a whole and its number of neurons. In turn, the distribution of neurons along the surface of the cerebral cortex, which is related to its degree of gyrification, appears to be a clade-specific characteristic. If the neuronal scaling rules for artiodactyls extend to all cetartiodactyls, we predict that the large cerebral cortex of cetaceans will still have fewer neurons than the human cerebral cortex.

Brain scaling in mammalian evolution as a consequence of concerted and mosaic changes in numbers of neurons and average neuronal cell size

Enough species have now been subject to systematic quantitative analysis of the relationship between the morphology and cellular composition of their brain that patterns begin to emerge and shed light on the evolutionary path that led to mammalian brain diversity. Based on an analysis of the shared and clade-specific characteristics of 41 modern mammalian species in 6 clades, and in light of the phylogenetic relationships among them, here we propose that ancestral mammal brains were composed and scaled in their cellular composition like modern afrotherian and glire brains: with an addition of neurons that is accompanied by a decrease in neuronal density and very little modification in glial cell density, implying a significant increase in average neuronal cell size in larger brains, and the allocation of approximately 2 neurons in the cerebral cortex and 8 neurons in the cerebellum for every neuron allocated to the rest of brain. We also propose that in some clades the scaling of different brain structures has diverged away from the common ancestral layout through clade-specific (or clade-defining) changes in how average neuronal cell mass relates to numbers of neurons in each structure, and how numbers of neurons are differentially allocated to each structure relative to the number of neurons in the rest of brain. Thus, the evolutionary expansion of mammalian brains has involved both concerted and mosaic patterns of scaling across structures. This is, to our knowledge, the first mechanistic model that explains the generation of brains large and small in mammalian evolution, and it opens up new horizons for seeking the cellular pathways and genes involved in brain evolution.

Greater addition of neurons to the olfactory bulb than to the cerebral cortex of eulipotyphlans but not rodents, afrotherians or primates

The olfactory bulb is an evolutionarily old structure that antedates the appearance of a six-layered mammalian cerebral cortex. As such, the neuronal scaling rules that apply to scaling the mass of the olfactory bulb as a function of its number of neurons might be shared across mammalian groups, as we have found to be the case for the ensemble of non-cortical, non-cerebellar brain structures. Alternatively, the neuronal scaling rules that apply to the olfactory bulb might be distinct in those mammals that rely heavily on olfaction. The group previously referred to as Insectivora includes small mammals, some of which are now placed in Afrotheria, a base group in mammalian radiation, and others in Eulipotyphla, a group derived later, at the base of Laurasiatheria. Here we show that the neuronal scaling rules that apply to building the olfactory bulb differ across eulipotyphlans and other mammals such that eulipotyphlans have more neurons concentrated in an olfactory bulb of similar size than afrotherians, glires and primates. Most strikingly, while the cerebral cortex gains neurons at a faster pace than the olfactory bulb in glires, and afrotherians follow this trend, it is the olfactory bulb that gains neurons at a faster pace than the cerebral cortex in eulipotyphlans, which contradicts the common view that the cerebral cortex is the fastest expanding structure in brain evolution. Our findings emphasize the importance of not using brain structure size as a proxy for numbers of neurons across mammalian orders, and are consistent with the notion that different selective pressures have acted upon the olfactory system of eulipotyphlans, glires and primates, with eulipotyphlans relying more on olfaction for their behavior than glires and primates. Surprisingly, however, the neuronal scaling rules for primates predict that the human olfactory bulb has as many neurons as the larger eulipotyphlan olfactory bulbs, which questions the classification of humans as microsmatic.

Cellular scaling rules for the brain of afrotherians

Quantitative analysis of the cellular composition of rodent, primate and eulipotyphlan brains has shown that non-neuronal scaling rules are similar across these mammalian orders that diverged about 95 million years ago, and therefore appear to be conserved in evolution, while neuronal scaling rules appear to be free to vary in evolution in a clade-specific manner. Here we analyze the cellular scaling rules that apply to the brain of afrotherians, believed to be the first clade to radiate from the common eutherian ancestor. We find that afrotherians share non-neuronal scaling rules with rodents, primates and eulipotyphlans, as well as the coordinated scaling of numbers of neurons in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. Afrotherians share with rodents and eulipotyphlans, but not with primates, the scaling of number of neurons in the cortex and in the cerebellum as a function of the number of neurons in the rest of the brain. Afrotheria also share with rodents and eulipotyphlans the neuronal scaling rules that apply to the cerebral cortex. Afrotherians share with rodents, but not with eulipotyphlans nor primates, the neuronal scaling rules that apply to the cerebellum. Importantly, the scaling of the folding index of the cerebral cortex with the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex is not shared by either afrotherians, rodents, or primates. The sharing of some neuronal scaling rules between afrotherians and rodents, and of some additional features with eulipotyphlans and primates, raise the interesting possibility that these shared characteristics applied to the common eutherian ancestor. In turn, the clade-specific characteristics that relate to the distribution of neurons along the surface of the cerebral cortex and to its degree of gyrification suggest that these characteristics compose an evolutionarily plastic suite of features that may have defined and distinguished mammalian groups in evolution.

The human cerebral cortex is neither one nor many: neuronal distribution reveals two quantitatively different zones in the gray matter, three in the white matter, and explains local variations in cortical folding

The human prefrontal cortex has been considered different in several aspects and relatively enlarged compared to the rest of the cortical areas. Here we determine whether the white and gray matter of the prefrontal portion of the human cerebral cortex have similar or different cellular compositions relative to the rest of the cortical regions by applying the Isotropic Fractionator to analyze the distribution of neurons along the entire anteroposterior axis of the cortex, and its relationship with the degree of gyrification, number of neurons under the cortical surface, and other parameters. The prefrontal region shares with the remainder of the cerebral cortex (except for occipital cortex) the same relationship between cortical volume and number of neurons. In contrast, both occipital and prefrontal areas vary from other cortical areas in their connectivity through the white matter, with a systematic reduction of cortical connectivity through the white matter and an increase of the mean axon caliber along the anteroposterior axis. These two parameters explain local differences in the distribution of neurons underneath the cortical surface. We also show that local variations in cortical folding are neither a function of local numbers of neurons nor of cortical thickness, but correlate with properties of the white matter, and are best explained by the folding of the white matter surface. Our results suggest that the human cerebral cortex is divided in two zones (occipital and non-occipital) that differ in how neurons are distributed across their gray matter volume and in three zones (prefrontal, occipital, and non-occipital) that differ in how neurons are connected through the white matter. Thus, the human prefrontal cortex has the largest fraction of neuronal connectivity through the white matter and the smallest average axonal caliber in the white matter within the cortex, although its neuronal composition fits the pattern found for other, non-occipital areas.

Different scaling of white matter volume, cortical connectivity, and gyrification across rodent and primate brains

Expansion of the cortical gray matter in evolution has been accompanied by an even faster expansion of the subcortical white matter volume and by folding of the gray matter surface, events traditionally considered to occur homogeneously across mammalian species. Here we investigate how white matter expansion and cortical folding scale across species of rodents and primates as the gray matter gains neurons. We find very different scaling rules of white matter expansion across the two orders, favoring volume conservation and smaller propagation times in primates. For a similar number of cortical neurons, primates have a smaller connectivity fraction and less white matter volume than rodents; moreover, as the cortex gains neurons, there is a much faster increase in white matter volume and in its ratio to gray matter volume in rodents than in primates. Order-specific scaling of the white matter can be attributed to different scaling of average fiber caliber and neuronal connectivity in rodents and primates. Finally, cortical folding increases as different functions of the number of cortical neurons in rodents and primates, scaling faster in the latter than in the former. While the neuronal rules that govern gray and white matter scaling are different across rodents and primates, we find that they can be explained by the same unifying model, with order-specific exponents. The different scaling of the white matter has implications for the scaling of propagation time and computational capacity in evolution, and calls for a reappraisal of developmental models of cortical expansion in evolution.