Non-Laminar Cerebral Cortex In Teleost Fishes?

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Veterinary
Article Date: 02 Oct 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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A large skull is disadvantageous to animals that move quickly in three-dimensional space, like fish and birds in water or air.

A cerebral neocortex with a six-layered sheet has not evolved, most likely due to the limited cranial space. Instead of the laminar cortex, telencephalic nuclear masses seem to have evolved as the pallium in teleost fishes.

We consider that the nuclear masses contain rather simple neural circuits sharing a skeleton of simple circuits in the mammalian cortex. Such basic similarities at the connectional level shared by nuclear and cortical pallium might underlie similar or equivalent functions.

Royal Society journal Biology Letters

Biology Letters publishes short, innovative and cutting-edge research articles and opinion pieces accessible to scientists from across the biological sciences. The journal is characterised by stringent peer-review, rapid publication and broad dissemination of succinct high-quality research communications.

Biology Letters