Size and density of glial and neuronal cells within the cerebral neocortex of various insectivorian species

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Abstract
Morphometric measurements were done on frontal sections through the somatosensory neocortex of various insectivorian species. All measured parameters varied with the size of animals; there was a better correlation with the ventriculartopial brain wall thickness than with the brain weight. The following rules were evaluated: with increasing brain wall thickness, (1) lamina I becomes thinner; (2) the nuclei of both neuronal and glial cells become larger; (3) the volume density of neuronal cells decreases greatly; (4) the volume density of glial cells increases slightly; and (5) as a result, the glia:neuron index increases markedly. There was no equal number of neurons under a unit surface area in the cortices of any species studied. Developmental processes that might account for the above‐mentioned rules are discussed in this report.