NeuralCipher Research overview
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Human infancy is characterized by protracted brain development coinciding with sensitive periods of extensive synaptic remodeling. Whether this is supported by human infant-specific transcriptional programs is unknown as comparative material in closely related primate species was unavailable. Here, we analyze rare newborn chimpanzee and age-matched human and rhesus macaque brain samples using single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics. We identify a human infant-specific transcriptional program in immature oligodendrocytes that is overrepresented in autism risk genes and patient gene expression changes. Furthermore, a human infant-specific transcriptional program in the neural lineage is overrepresented in Parkinson's disease risk genes and patient gene expression changes. Both of these programs are part of a core transcriptional network that contains human-specific sequence changes in regulatory DNA and lacks cell lineage specificity. Our study provides insights into the stage-specific properties of human evolution during early infancy and sheds light on the human-specific propensities to neural disease.
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