Physical contact reveals a hidden layer of cortical architecture.
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| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Sprache: | en |
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bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
2026
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| author | Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock |
| author_facet | Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock |
| collection | PubMed - marine biology |
| contents | Physical contact reveals a hidden layer of cortical architecture. Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock Neurons interact at synapses, but they also communicate through physical contact and proximity, including diffusion, glia-mediated interactions, and ephaptic coupling. Standard connectomes map synapses, but cannot capture the full set of cell-cell contacts that can support these pathways. Here we extract contactomes from two large mouse visual cortex volumes at nanoscale resolution and quantify every cell-cell contact, the shared surface area of each contact, and the relationship between contact and synaptic connectivity. We find that contactomes are 5-10× denser than synaptic graphs, revealing that neurons physically contact a much larger set of potential neighbors than they synaptically connect to. We further find that most nearby potential neighbors are already in physical contact, indicating that local structural change would add few new candidate synaptic partners. Finally, we find that astrocytes form a single large syncytium-like network that spans the tissue and directly contacts nearly all neurons, and that glial processes lie within a micron or two of almost every synapse, indicating that synapses reside within a pervasive glia-shaped microenvironment. Together, these results show that physical contact forms a distinct layer of brain architecture that extends far beyond the synaptic connectome. |
| format | Artículo científico |
| id | pubmed_42146364 |
| institution | PubMed |
| language | en |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology |
| record_format | pubmed |
| spellingShingle | Physical contact reveals a hidden layer of cortical architecture. Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock Physical contact reveals a hidden layer of cortical architecture. Matelsky, Jordan K Martinez, Hannah Robinette, Michael S Merfeld, Katharine Xenes, Daniel Cavanaugh, Cara J Emerson, Sarah E Bhaskar, Dhananjay Clark, Benjamin Bishop, Caitlyn Körding, Konrad P Colón-Ramos, Daniel Rivlin, Patricia Smith, Cody J Wester, Brock Neurons interact at synapses, but they also communicate through physical contact and proximity, including diffusion, glia-mediated interactions, and ephaptic coupling. Standard connectomes map synapses, but cannot capture the full set of cell-cell contacts that can support these pathways. Here we extract contactomes from two large mouse visual cortex volumes at nanoscale resolution and quantify every cell-cell contact, the shared surface area of each contact, and the relationship between contact and synaptic connectivity. We find that contactomes are 5-10× denser than synaptic graphs, revealing that neurons physically contact a much larger set of potential neighbors than they synaptically connect to. We further find that most nearby potential neighbors are already in physical contact, indicating that local structural change would add few new candidate synaptic partners. Finally, we find that astrocytes form a single large syncytium-like network that spans the tissue and directly contacts nearly all neurons, and that glial processes lie within a micron or two of almost every synapse, indicating that synapses reside within a pervasive glia-shaped microenvironment. Together, these results show that physical contact forms a distinct layer of brain architecture that extends far beyond the synaptic connectome. |
| title | Physical contact reveals a hidden layer of cortical architecture. |
| url | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42146364/ |