Speaker
Description
Turing pattern formation has been used to model many biological patterns including animal coat, fish, and butterfly patterns. We apply a Turing reaction-diffusion system to a prolate spheroid domain representing the developing cortex, to study cortical folding pattern formation. The brain's cerebral cortex has complex folds with hills (gyri) and valleys (sulci). While the mechanism for the development of cortical folds is not understood, one proposed theory suggests that patterning of a non-uniform distribution of intermediate progenitor (IP) cells during neurodevelopment correlates with cortical folds. We model IP cell patterning via the activator morphogen of the Turing system. Patterns generated by our Turing system represent prepatterns of self-amplification of IP cells. Our results demonstrate that cortical folding patterns are influenced by the shape of the domain, growth rate, and genetic control. Using these parameters, our Turing models of cortical folding can be used to explain diseases of cortical folding pattern formation, such as lissencephaly and polymicrogyria.
