During development of the cerebral cortex, excitatory projection neurons migrate to form a cellular infrastructure of radial columns. However, some of these clonally related neurons undergo a lateral shift to intermix with neurons originating from neighbouring proliferative units. This process is now shown to be dependent on Eph receptor A and ephrin A signalling, a so far unrecognized mechanism for lateral neuronal dispersion that seems to be essential for the proper intermixing of neuronal types in the cortical columns.
- Masaaki Torii
- Kazue Hashimoto-Torii
- Pasko Rakic
