A Conserved Cell-type Gradient Across the Human Mediodorsal and Paraventricular Thalamus

Overview

Journal bioRxiv

Date 2024 Sep 16

PMID 39282422

Authors

Anton Schulmann

Ningping Feng

Pavan K Auluck

Arghya Mukherjee

Ruchi Komal

Yan Leng

Claire Gao

Sarah K Williams Avram

Snehashis Roy

Ted B Usdin

Qing Xu

Vesna Imamovic

Yash Patel

Nirmala Akula

Armin Raznahan

Vilas Menon

Panos Roussos

Laramie Duncan

Abdel Elkahloun

Jatinder Singh

Michael C Kelly

Michael M Halassa

Samer Hattar

Mario A Penzo

Stefano Marenco

Francis J McMahon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The mediodorsal thalamus (MD) and adjacent midline nuclei are important for cognition and mental illness, but their cellular composition is not well defined. Using single-nucleus and spatial transcriptomics, we identified a conserved excitatory neuron gradient, with distinct spatial mapping of individual clusters. One end of the gradient was expanded in human MD compared to mice, which may be related to the expansion of granular prefrontal cortex in hominids. Moreover, neurons preferentially mapping onto the parvocellular division MD were associated with genetic risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Midbrain-derived inhibitory interneurons were enriched in human MD and implicated in genetic risk for major depressive disorder.

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