Chinese and French scientists have developed an extremely detailed plan of the Crabe eating macaque claustrum, an elusive brain region that would play a role in consciousness.
The team also revealed significant differences in the structure and cell types of macaque and rodent claustrums, which could provide clues to help study the evolutionary mechanism behind consciousness.
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“A single cell space atlas and a whole brain brain connectivity card is generated,” said the team in an article published in the Cell journal evaluated by peers on April 3.
Claustrum is a thin leaf of neurons – nerve cells that send messages around the body – and support cells in the brain that connect to the cerebral cortex as well as to the subcortical regions of the brain, like the hippocampus.
Research on the brain region has revealed that it plays a role in brain functions such as sleep regulation, depression, behavioral engagement, cognitive control and consciousness.
There is still no scientific consensus on the way in which consciousness is generated and why human consciousness differs from other animals, although this capacity must come from a certain action in the brain.
While the claustrum is known to orchestrate brain functions via connections with many brain regions, its molecular and cellular organization has been misunderstood.