Neuronal morphology is characterized by salient features such as complex axonal and dendritic arbors. In the mammalian brain, variations in dendritic morphology among cell classes, brain regions, and animal species are thought to underlie known differences in neuronal function. In this work, we obtained a large dataset from Neuromorpho.com comprising layer III pyramidal cells in different cortical areas of the ventral visual pathway (V1, V2, V4, TEO, and TE) of the macaque monkey at different developmental stages. We performed an in depth quantitative analysis of pyramidal cell morphology throughout development in an effort to determine which aspects mature early in development and which features require a protracted period of maturation. We were also interested in establishing if developmental changes in morphological features occur simultaneously or hierarchically in multiple visual cortical areas. We addressed this question by performing principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis on relevant morphological features. Our analysis indicates that the maturation of pyramidal cell morphology is largely based on early development of topological features in most visual cortical areas. Moreover, the maturation of pyramidal cell morphology in V1, V2, V4, TEO, and TE is characterized by unique developmental trajectories.

中文翻译：

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聚类分析在多个视觉皮层区域锥体细胞形态的发育变化

神经元形态的特征是明显的特征，例如复杂的轴突和树突状乔木。在哺乳动物的大脑中，树突形态在细胞类别，大脑区域和动物物种之间的变化被认为是神经元功能已知差异的基础。在这项工作中，我们从Neuromorpho.com获得了一个大型数据集，其中包括猕猴在不同发育阶段的腹侧视觉通路（V1，V2，V4，TEO和TE）的不同皮质区域中的第三层锥体细胞。我们对整个发育过程中的锥体细胞形态进行了深入的定量分析，以努力确定哪些方面在发育早期成熟，哪些特征需要较长的成熟期。我们也有兴趣确定在多个视觉皮层区域中形态特征的发展变化是同时发生还是分层发生。我们通过对相关形态特征进行主成分分析（PCA）和层次聚类分析来解决此问题。我们的分析表明，锥体细胞形态的成熟很大程度上取决于大多数视觉皮层区域拓扑特征的早期发展。此外，V1，V2，V4，TEO和TE中锥体细胞形态的成熟具有独特的发展轨迹。我们的分析表明，锥体细胞形态的成熟很大程度上取决于大多数视觉皮层区域拓扑特征的早期发展。此外，V1，V2，V4，TEO和TE中锥体细胞形态的成熟具有独特的发展轨迹。我们的分析表明，锥体细胞形态的成熟很大程度上取决于大多数视觉皮层区域拓扑特征的早期发展。此外，V1，V2，V4，TEO和TE中锥体细胞形态的成熟具有独特的发展轨迹。