title: Analysis of mammalian brain architecture.
abstract: The mammalian brain is composed of several distinct parts which show different growth in evolution. Clark, Mitra and Wang found that the two main cortices of the brain - the cerebral (neo-) cortex and the cerebellum - show very different growth, and that whereas the ratio of neocortex volume to total brain volume increases with evolution, the cerebellum occupies a constant proportion in different species. Here I compare the surface areas of the two cortices in different species and find that these show a simple proportionality. Contrary to the conclusion drawn by Clark et al., this linear dependence of size implies that the two major cortices increase their computational capacity in parallel, suggesting a functional dependence of the one upon the other.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Neurology, University of Tübingen, Germany. fahad.sultan@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Fahad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sultan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D008959:Models, Neurological; D019579:Neocortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011323:Primates / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013499:Surface Properties