Transcriptomic contributions to a modern cytoarchitectonic parcellation of the human cerebral cortex

Abstract

Transcriptomic contributions to the anatomical, functional, and network layout of the human cerebral cortex (HCC) has become a major interest in cognitive and systems neuroscience. Here, we tested if transcriptomic differences support a modern, algorithmic cytoarchitectonic parcellation of HCC. Using a data-driven approach, we identified a sparse subset of genes that differentially contributed to the cytoarchitectonic parcellation of HCC. A novel metric (cortical thickness/myelination ratio; CT/M ratio), as well as cell density, correlated with gene expression. Enrichment analyses showed that genes specific to the cytoarchitectonic parcellation of the HCC were related to molecular functions such as transmembrane transport and ion channel activity. Together, the novel relationship between transcriptomics and the CT/M ratio bridges the gap among i) gradients at the macroscale, ii) areas at the meso-scale, and iii) cell density at the microscale, as well as supports the recently proposed cortical spectrum theory.