| Budget Amount *help |
¥67,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥52,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥15,690,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥12,610,000 (Direct Cost: ¥9,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,910,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥14,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,270,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥14,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥11,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,450,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥12,870,000 (Direct Cost: ¥9,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,970,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥13,390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,090,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The computational architecture of the nervous system is largely determined by the structure of its circuit. In the mammalian neocortex, whether the circuit has an elementary unit that repeats along the cortical sheet remains unknown. We found that subcerebral projection neurons (SCPNs), excitatory neurons in layer 5 projecting to extracortical targets, are organized into microcolumnar clusters. These microcolumns were arranged periodically along the cortical sheet into an approximately hexagonal pattern. SCPNs in individual microcolumns were connected by gap junctions during development and later received common synaptic inputs. In the visual, somatosensory and motor cortices, neuronal activity was synchronized specifically within microcolumns. These results indicate that microcolumns represent repeating units in the neocortical circuit, and suggest that parallel processing in a regular array of microcolumns is a basic computational architecture of the neocortex.
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