The Neocortex

Of the three organizers of this NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Neocortex: Onto geny and Phylogeny", one derived most of his knowledge about neocortex from studies on birds, another had never studied any animal but the cat and could probably recognize not more than ten animal species, and the third had very limited experience with mountaineering. They had in common the belief that evolutionary thinking permeates what biologists do, but that evolution of species and structures cannot be directly experimentally addressed. Although the fossil record can provide some major insights, the inroad to the evolution of the brain is indirect, via comparative anatomy and developmental biology. By identifying similarities and differences between brain structures in the species at hand, comparative anatomy generates hypotheses of evolutionary transformations. By understanding the rules of morphological transformation, developmental biology can, in principle, estimate the likelihood that a given transformation may have actually occurred. The meeting was a way to check if this notion is viable, by gathering together scientists from these two fields. Standing, left to right: F. Ebner, V. Caviness, M. Weisskopf, B. Fritszch, N. Swindale, J. Walter, H. Karten, J. Pettigrew, E. Welker, M. Cynader, D. Frost, L. Lopez-Mascaraque, P. Katz, H. Jerison, E. Soriano, Mayor of Alagna, Dr. G. Guglielmina, and associate, H. Van der Loos, B. Finlay, H. Scheich, C. Ruela. Seated: S. Pallas, T. Lohmann, J. De Carlos, F. Valverde, G. Innocenti, M. Diamond v "Gathering" does not accurately describe what really happened.

Inhalt
Evolutionary and Developmental Syntheses.- Fossil Brains and the Evolution of the Neocortex.- Critical Cellular Events During Cortical Evolution: Radial Unit Hypothesis.- Control of Cell Number and Type in the Developing and Evolving Neocortex.- Pathways Between Development and Evolution.- to Sections 2 and 3.- Comparative Aspects of Forebrain Organization.- The Dorsal Ventricular Ridge and Cortex of Reptiles in Historical and Phylogenetic Perspective.- Multiple Origins of Neocortex: Contributions of the Dorsal Ventricular Ridge.- Aspects of Phylogenetic Variability of Neocortical Intrinsic Organization.- On the Coincidence of Loss of Electroreception and Reorganization of Brain Stem Nuclei in Vertebrates.- The Design of Striate Cortex.- Representation Geometries of Telencephalic Auditory Maps in Birds and Mammals.- Flying Cats and Flying Primates: Evolutionary Surprises From Neurobiology.- Emergence of Radial and Modular Units in Neocortex.- Neuroembryology of the Neocortex.- Ontogeny and Structure of the Radial Glial Fiber System of the Developing Murine Cerebrum.- Nonpyramidal Neurons in the Mammalian Hippocampus: Principles of Organization and Development.- Morphological Characterization of ALZ-50 Immunoreactive Cells in the Developing Neocortex of Kittens.- Guidance of Chick Retinal Axons in Vitro.- Cross-Modal Plasticity in Sensory Cortex.- Visual Responses on Neurons in Somatosensory Cortex of Hamsters With Experimentally Induced Retinal Projections to Somatosensory Thalamus.- Brain Maps: Development, Plasticity and Distribution of Signals Beyond.- The Possibility of Gaba-Ergic Innervation in Plasticity of Adult Cerebral Cortex.- Transient Receptor Expression in Visual Cortex Development and the Mechanisms of Cortical Plasticity.- Contributors.