Best of the AANS Session-Different Principles Govern Multiple Scales of Brain Folding

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The video features Arca Malela, a neurosurgery resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery, presenting on the topic of brain folding. He discusses the historical belief that the brain folds due to constraints from the skull, but presents alternative explanations. One hypothesis is that differential genetic expression causes radial and tangential growth in cortical progenitor cells, leading to gyri and sulci formation. Another hypothesis is that mechanical phenomena, such as tissue buckling, cause the brain to fold. Malela examines different malformations of cortical development to suggest that multiple processes drive folding patterns. He also discusses findings from an analysis of fetal MRI brain atlases, which reveal different forms of folding at different stages of gestation. The study concludes that a single mechanism cannot explain brain folding, and the work has implications for understanding genetic changes and challenging assumptions about gyri and sulci formation. The presentation was published in Cerebral Cortex.

Keywords

Arca Malela

neurosurgery resident

brain folding

cortical progenitor cells

gyri and sulci formation