A new study of brain development in mice shortly after birth may provide insights into how early life events can affect wiring patterns in the brain that manifest as disease later in life — specifically such disorders as schizophrenia, epilepsy and autism.
Researchers focused on two types of brain cells that have been linked to adult neurological disorders: neurons in a modulating system nestled deep in the brain and other neurons in the cortex, the brain’s outermost layer, that counteract excitation in other cells using inhibitory effects. The modulating cells send long-range cables to the cortex to remotely influence cortical cell activity.
