

Number of neurons doesn't explain superiority of the human brain - FiReaNG3L
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/06/08/origins.brain

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niels_olson
See, this is a major problem with fee-for-article access to journals. 10
journalists talk to the author (or does the author contact the journalists?),
the journalists feel confident enough to write an article, there's a headline,
some callouts, and then there's some metaheadline on another site with
commentary virtually unrelated to the original details. For the sweet love of
. . . did anyone _not_ think that the synaptic structure of a human neuron
might be a _smidge_ more complex than that of a fruit fly?

What's really sad is that most people here could understand the article
perfectly well if they could only access it. If you want to be understood,
publish in an open-access journal, like PLoS.

Here's the [link to the
paper]([http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.213...](http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2135.html;jsessionid=9FB91A9B67EDC7E9E01952D3603B3BEA)),
and the abstract, below

>Evolutionary expansion and anatomical specialization of synapse proteome
complexity

>Richard D Emes1,6, Andrew J Pocklington2,6, Christopher N G Anderson3,6, Alex
Bayes3, Mark O Collins3, Catherine A Vickers4,5, Mike D R Croning3, Bilal R
Malik2, Jyoti S Choudhary3, J Douglas Armstrong2 & Seth G N Grant3

>Abstract

>Understanding the origins and evolution of synapses may provide insight into
species diversity and the organization of the brain. Using comparative
proteomics and genomics, we examined the evolution of the postsynaptic density
(PSD) and membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK)-associated signaling
complexes (MASCs) that underlie learning and memory. PSD and MASC orthologs
found in yeast carry out basic cellular functions to regulate protein
synthesis and structural plasticity. We observed marked changes in signaling
complexity at the yeast-metazoan and invertebrate-vertebrate boundaries, with
an expansion of key synaptic components, notably receptors,
adhesion/cytoskeletal proteins and scaffold proteins. A proteomic comparison
of Drosophila and mouse MASCs revealed species-specific adaptation with
greater signaling complexity in mouse. Although synaptic components were
conserved amongst diverse vertebrate species, mapping mRNA and protein
expression in the mouse brain showed that vertebrate-specific components
preferentially contributed to differences between brain regions. We propose
that the evolution of synapse complexity around a core proto-synapse has
contributed to invertebrate-vertebrate differences and to brain
specialization.

~~~
psyklic
Actually, the complexity of synaptic structure between species is not obvious
(and hence, this is one reason the article made it into Nature Neuroscience, a
highly regarded journal). Since the neuron is the fundamental unit of the
nervous system in all species, it is a decent prediction that it is of the
same "complexity" across all species.

I do agree that articles should be published in open-access journals. However,
most people here probably could not understand the article well (no offense to
HN readers!).

You really do need a very good biology background to even understand the
experiments or to interpret the conclusions and their reliability. In
addition, scientific articles are very dry, and if a journalist did not
simplify it for you, you likely (1) would have missed the big ideas (which are
often phrased in scientific jargon), and most importantly, (2) would have
never read the article in the first place!

~~~
niels_olson
I suspect this is in Nature Neuroscience at least as much for it the technical
challenge behind the research as anything to do with the big idea. I would
also hesitate to make any claim as to whether or not the average HN reader
can, today, understand the article. If I was going to identify any shortcoming
in their ability, I would focus on our educational systems with their obscene
focus on hyper-specialization ("I specialize in the left kidney . . . no, no,
I don't do right kidneys.")

It has become increasingly my experience, as someone with training in physics,
military, medicine, and computers, that one of our major problems as a society
is how uninvolved we are with anything, _anything_ , outside our hyperfocused
domains, or the spoonfed news we get from the MSM. I like the idea PG
expressed about the nature of Boston: you feel like you really _should_ read
those <classics | groundbreaking studies | revolutionary opinions>.

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jackchristopher
It's the quantity _and_ quality of connections.

We're more intelligent because we have more neurons _and_ those neurons are
better organized.

Problem is, we don't know what "better organized" looks like.

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berryg
One step closer to The Singularity? Maybe Ray Kurzweil is right with his
predictions on the growth of technology and knowledge.

