MCELLBI C61 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Substantia Nigra, Locus Coeruleus, Ventral Tegmental Area
17 May 2020
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Document Summary
In the 2 million years between homo habilis + us, the size of the hominin brain has doubled, and much of this increase is related to expansion of the cerebrum. All mammals, from mice and moles to whales to humans, have a layered cerebral cortex. There is local interconnectivity within and between cortical layers, and there is long-range connectivity between widely separated regions of the cerebrum e. g. occipital lobe neurons connect w frontal lobe neurons + vice versa. There"s bidirectional connectivity between the cerebral cortex + many structures: thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus, substantia nigra, ventral tegmentum, locus coeruleus, raphe nuclei . Cellular microcircuitry: no neuron in the human brain is more than a very small number of synapses away from every other neuron in the brain. Gross anatomy: the two hemispheres of the human cerebral cortex appear roughly identical, but studies reveal a lateralization (di erence) of function between them. Phenomena that illustrates the concept of lateralization of cerebral cortical function:
