New type of human brain cell identified

Researchers from the Allen Institute (DC, USA) and the University of Szeged (Szeged, Hungary) have uncovered a previously unknown type of human brain cell – known as a rosehip neuron – that has never before been seen in any other animal, including rodents. Using rodents for modeling neurological diseases in the lab is commonplace, however, there are limitations to this. This rosehip neuron is just one example of the many disparities between human and rodent brains. In this study, published recently in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers used samples of tissue from the post-mortem brains of two men. The tissue studied...