Scientists come to discover a part of the human brain still unknown

Thirty years ago, George Paxinos noticed an unusual assortment of cells hiding near the brainstem – but he did not think much about it.

By browsing the region in 2018, he is struck again. Today, new research by Paxinos suggests that the cluster of cells is really important. In fact, it seems to be a totally unknown region of the human brain. The initial suggestion is that this group of neurons can be responsible for fine motor control, dictating our ability to scratch the guitar, write and play sports.

Professor Paxinos is one of the most respected "brain mappers" in the world. He creates human and animal brain atlases that allow neuroscientists, brain surgeons and clinicians to better understand what constitutes the thinking boxes of our skull.

The return to the region that initially interested him before publishing his first atlas 28 years ago led to the discovery of the tiny group of brain cells. He crowned the new region "the endorestiform core" because of its location at the base of the brain in the restiform body.

"A fascinating thing about this endorestiform core is that it only seems to be present in humans, we have not been able to detect it in rhesus monkeys or marmosets that we have studied, "he explained.

Its location, between the brainstem and the spinal cord, is the only information we have currently on the functioning of brain cells. As Paxinos has not been able to locate the same region in other monkeys, he assumes that it must be useful in the fine motor control to which humans are so exceptionally endowed.

You can hear Professor Paxinos discuss the discovery in the video below.

However, although the structure appears to be important, further work will be needed to understand the link between its function and form. Paxinos goes to the brain only to develop a map. Other intrepid explorers of the brain will have the opportunity to return to the center of the neuron beam and learn more.

The often repeated line on our brain containing as many neurons as there are stars in the galaxy does not sound quite right – but with some 86 billion pulsed neurons on the floor, the Improving our understanding of the brain remains a mammoth task. Discoveries like this allow scientists and researchers to understand normal brain physiology and better understand why and how things go wrong in pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease or motor neurons.

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