AUTHOR=Jacobs Bob , Johnson Nicholas L. , Wahl Devin , Schall Matthew , Maseko Busisiwe C. , Lewandowski Albert , Raghanti Mary A. , Wicinski Bridget , Butti Camilla , Hopkins William D. , Bertelsen Mads F. , Walsh Timothy , Roberts John R. , Reep Roger L. , Hof Patrick R. , Sherwood Chet C. , Manger Paul R. TITLE=Comparative neuronal morphology of the cerebellar cortex in afrotherians, carnivores, cetartiodactyls, and primates JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroanatomy VOLUME=8 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroanatomy/articles/10.3389/fnana.2014.00024 DOI=10.3389/fnana.2014.00024 ISSN=1662-5129 ABSTRACT=

Although the basic morphological characteristics of neurons in the cerebellar cortex have been documented in several species, virtually nothing is known about the quantitative morphological characteristics of these neurons across different taxa. To that end, the present study investigated cerebellar neuronal morphology among eight different, large-brained mammalian species comprising a broad phylogenetic range: afrotherians (African elephant, Florida manatee), carnivores (Siberian tiger, clouded leopard), cetartiodactyls (humpback whale, giraffe) and primates (human, common chimpanzee). Specifically, several neuron types (e.g., stellate, basket, Lugaro, Golgi, and granule neurons; N = 317) of the cerebellar cortex were stained with a modified rapid Golgi technique and quantified on a computer-assisted microscopy system. There was a 64-fold variation in brain mass across species in our sample (from clouded leopard to the elephant) and a 103-fold variation in cerebellar volume. Most dendritic measures tended to increase with cerebellar volume. The cerebellar cortex in these species exhibited the trilaminate pattern common to all mammals. Morphologically, neuron types in the cerebellar cortex were generally consistent with those described in primates (Fox et al., 1967) and rodents (Palay and Chan-Palay, 1974), although there was substantial quantitative variation across species. In particular, Lugaro neurons in the elephant appeared to be disproportionately larger than those in other species. To explore potential quantitative differences in dendritic measures across species, MARSplines analyses were used to evaluate whether species could be differentiated from each other based on dendritic characteristics alone. Results of these analyses indicated that there were significant differences among all species in dendritic measures.