Diversity in Cortical Organization - 22nd Annual Karger Workshop, San Diego, Calif., November 2010. Special Topic Issue: Brain, Behavior and Evolution 2011, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Paperback)

Summarizing recent advances in understanding of how neocortex emerged and subsequently varied in mammalian evolution, this publication is packed with new and often unexpected findings. Some contributions address the issue of how cortex emerges in development, using both comparative evidence from mammals, reptiles, and birds, and how neurons migrate to form cortex and types of cortical neurons. Further reviews stress the variability of cortical organization across mammalian species and orders, and in some detail within the rodent radiation. In addition, new ways of determining the numbers of neurons in brains and parts of brains have led to new conclusions about how neuron densities vary within brains of different sizes, across taxa, and from one cortical area to another. While the bulk of neuroscience research is now conducted on mice and rats, the reviews stress the diversity in cortical organization that exists in mammals, a diversity that offers many challenges and opportunities in research.