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Brain Structure and Function
Published in: Brain Structure and Function 1/2015

01-01-2015 | Original Article

In contrast to many other mammals, cetaceans have relatively small hippocampi that appear to lack adult neurogenesis

Authors: Nina Patzke, Muhammad A. Spocter, Karl Æ. Karlsson, Mads F. Bertelsen, Mark Haagensen, Richard Chawana, Sonja Streicher, Consolate Kaswera, Emmanuel Gilissen, Abdulaziz N. Alagaili, Osama B. Mohammed, Roger L. Reep, Nigel C. Bennett, Jerry M. Siegel, Amadi O. Ihunwo, Paul R. Manger

Published in: Brain Structure and Function | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

The hippocampus is essential for the formation and retrieval of memories and is a crucial neural structure sub-serving complex cognition. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis, the birth, migration and integration of new neurons, is thought to contribute to hippocampal circuit plasticity to augment function. We evaluated hippocampal volume in relation to brain volume in 375 mammal species and examined 71 mammal species for the presence of adult hippocampal neurogenesis using immunohistochemistry for doublecortin, an endogenous marker of immature neurons that can be used as a proxy marker for the presence of adult neurogenesis. We identified that the hippocampus in cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) is both absolutely and relatively small for their overall brain size, and found that the mammalian hippocampus scaled as an exponential function in relation to brain volume. In contrast, the amygdala was found to scale as a linear function of brain volume, but again, the relative size of the amygdala in cetaceans was small. The cetacean hippocampus lacks staining for doublecortin in the dentate gyrus and thus shows no clear signs of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. This lack of evidence of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, along with the small hippocampus, questions current assumptions regarding cognitive abilities associated with hippocampal function in the cetaceans. These anatomical features of the cetacean hippocampus may be related to the lack of postnatal sleep, causing a postnatal cessation of hippocampal neurogenesis.
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Metadata
Title
In contrast to many other mammals, cetaceans have relatively small hippocampi that appear to lack adult neurogenesis
Authors
Nina Patzke
Muhammad A. Spocter
Karl Æ. Karlsson
Mads F. Bertelsen
Mark Haagensen
Richard Chawana
Sonja Streicher
Consolate Kaswera
Emmanuel Gilissen
Abdulaziz N. Alagaili
Osama B. Mohammed
Roger L. Reep
Nigel C. Bennett
Jerry M. Siegel
Amadi O. Ihunwo
Paul R. Manger
Publication date
01-01-2015
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Brain Structure and Function / Issue 1/2015
Print ISSN: 1863-2653
Electronic ISSN: 1863-2661
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-013-0660-1

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