Limited Likeness

Despite appearances, we share fundamental similarities with animals around us. That’s why experiments on mice have yielded countless discoveries about our own biology. But is there a limit to how much we can learn from animals so visibly different? To investigate, researchers closely compared the development of the human cerebellum – part of the brain involved in processing sensory information (cross-section pictured) – with that of mice and macaques. They discovered that the human cerebellum has entirely unique characteristics, such as a group of developmental cells never seen in this region before, and the slower production of certain structures. This may reveal why past attempts to recreate certain human brain defects in mice have struggled, as they lack some of the machinery involved. A cautionary tale for those using animal models to draw conclusions about human health, and an important revelation of what we can, and cannot, learn from our evolutionary relations.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Parthiv Haldipur and colleagues
• Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Science, October 2019