Thanks Cedric!

Huge thanks goes to my mentor Christian Hansel, the UChicago neuro institute, and to many for their ideas and feedback along the way: @tingfenglin.bsky.social, Abby Silbaugh, Aurora Ferrell, Donald Huang, Ruth Anne Eatock, Wei Wei, Mark Sheffield, and Peggy Mason

Purkinje cells of similar morphologies also tended to cluster near each other. If morphology dictates some features of PC function, then this cell-cell clustering may generate patches of functional similarity in the cortex

Building on our 2023 analysis of PC morphology by region, the anterior-posterior gradient in the hemispheres is bilateral, distinct from the pattern in vermis (in both species), and inter-hemisphere similarity covaries with functional symmetry

Using peripherin as a putative label for climbing fibers (CFs), we show that human PCs can indeed receive multiple CFs (and on separate dendritic compartments), confirming a hypothesis from our previous work

Outward growth of dendrites (w conserved diameter but 3x longer individual branches) may influence how human cells sample and integrate input. Human dendritic spines are also denser, larger, and show more complex morphologies including a ‘spine cluster’ motif

Despite having only 2x thicker cerebellar cortex, human Purkinje cell (PC) dendrites spread laterally to a total length 11x longer than mouse. This far exceeds our previous measure, revealing they are >2x the total length of human pyramidal neurons

The aliens are within.....