Brain-wide Maps Reveal Stereotyped Cell-Type-Based Cortical Architecture and Subcortical Sexual Dimorphism

• Published in: Cell Vol. 171; no. 2; pp. 456 - 469.e22
• Main Authors: Kim, Yongsoo, Yang, Guangyu Robert, Pradhan, Kith, Venkataraju, Kannan Umadevi, Bota, Mihail, García del Molino, Luis Carlos, Fitzgerald, Greg, Ram, Keerthi, He, Miao, Levine, Jesse Maurica, Mitra, Partha, Huang, Z. Josh, Wang, Xiao-Jing, Osten, Pavel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 05.10.2017
• Subjects: Animals; brain; Brain - cytology; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping; Cell type; cortex; Female; Humans; inhibition; Interneurons - cytology; Male; Mammals - physiology; Sex Characteristics; sexual dimorphism; cortex; inhibition; brain; Cell type; sexual dimorphism
• ISSN: 0092-8674; 1097-4172; 1097-4172
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.020

The stereotyped features of neuronal circuits are those most likely to explain the remarkable capacity of the brain to process information and govern behaviors, yet it has not been possible to comprehensively quantify neuronal distributions across animals or genders due to the size and complexity of the mammalian brain. Here we apply our quantitative brain-wide (qBrain) mapping platform to document the stereotyped distributions of mainly inhibitory cell types. We discover an unexpected cortical organizing principle: sensory-motor areas are dominated by output-modulating parvalbumin-positive interneurons, whereas association, including frontal, areas are dominated by input-modulating somatostatin-positive interneurons. Furthermore, we identify local cell type distributions with more cells in the female brain in 10 out of 11 sexually dimorphic subcortical areas, in contrast to the overall larger brains in males. The qBrain resource can be further mined to link stereotyped aspects of neuronal distributions to known and unknown functions of diverse brain regions. [Display omitted] •Quantitative maps reveal cell-type-based structural organization of the brain•PV+ and SST+ interneuron distribution defines cortical hierarchies•Circuit architectures differ in frontal/ associational and sensorimotor cortices•SST+ and VIP+ distribution identifies sexually dimorphic subcortical circuits A quantitative cell-type-based whole-brain anatomical resource reveals new principles of structural organization of the brain