Researchers at UCLA have discovered two powerful factors that guide how the human brain forms before birth. First, they found that radial glia (stem cells responsible for much of the cerebral cortex) change their behavior depending on how they process glucose. Second, they showed that signals from the thalamus physically touch radial glia during development, altering their behavior and causing them to produce more excitatory neurons, particularly upper-layer neurons which are especially prominent in humans. The team also linked this physical interaction to the NRXN1 gene, whose mutations have been associated with autism spectrum disorder. These findings suggest that radial glia do not make decisions in isolation but are continuously shaped by their environment.
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