Tracing pathways from high-resolution tractography, transcription, and temporal dimensions

The neural circuits supporting human cognition are topics of enduring
interest. The lack of tools available to map circuits has precluded our
ability to trace the evolution of the human connectome. We harnessed
high-resolution connectomic, anatomic, and transcriptomic data to develop
enhanced tools to test for modifications in developmental programs across
species. We found corresponding ages across species and transcriptionally
define neurons with stereotypical projections in humans and macaques. We
used these data to test for modifications in frontal cortex circuit.
Frontal cortex circuitry development is extended in primates, which is
concomitant with an expansion in cortico-cortical pathways compared with
mice in adulthood. These parameters varied little across humans and
macaques. We identify a collection of conserved features in frontal cortex
circuits in studied primates. We demonstrate that the integration of
transcriptional and connectomic data across temporal dimensions is a
robust approach to trace the evolution of connections in primates. This
dataset contains scripts as well as diffusion MR scans of mouse brains.