All vertebrates have a skull. In which is lodged - and protected - one of the most important and complex biological tissues that exists, i.e. the brain tissue. When you compare the brains of different animals, there is one thing that stands out immediately: the amount of folds. The brain of a marmoset or mouse, for instance, seems almost smooth when put beside a sheep's, or a human's. It all has to do with available space. Human brain tissue presents such a large surface that the only way Nature has found to fit it into a rather small receptacle is to fold it many times - very much like inserting a large blanket into a small drawer. This folding has given the human brain the particular architectural characteristics it has; an architecture which - when altered - can cause severe neurological harm. Recently, scientists discovered a protein which has a direct role in folding brain tissue during brain development: TMF-regulated nuclear protein 1, or Trnp1.
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