Scientists have taken another step toward understanding what makes the human brain unique.
An international team has identified a kind of brain cell that exists in people but not mice, the team reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
"This particular type of cell had properties that had never actually been described in another species," says Ed Lein, one of the study's authors and an investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.
The finding could help explain why many experimental treatments for brain disorders have worked in mice, but failed in people. It could also provide new clues to scientists who study human brain disorders ranging from autism to Alzheimer's disease to schizophrenia.
Learn more: What Makes A Human Brain Unique? A Newly Discovered Neuron May Be A Clue