Attempts to mathamatically define a developmental gradient. The isthmic organizer and the postmitotic neuronal migration dynamics in the developing central nervous system

RAPACIOLI M; D'ATTELLIS C; DIMIRO A; SPRAGGON T; FERRÁN JL; PEREYRA-ALFONSO S; SANCHEZ V; SCICOLONE G; FLORES V

Mathematics and simulation with biological applications

World Scientific and Engineering Society Press

Año: 2001; p. 137 - 142

The present paper postulates that changes introduced in a developing system by the operation of a specific cell behavior - developmental mechanism - submitted to a developmental gradient, as far as they can be appropriately quantified, may be used as informative signal to analyze the dynamics of operation of the developmental mechanism and also to mathematically describe the developmental gradient under which influence it operates. Space sequences obtained by quantification of fluctuations generated at the interface between the generative and the migratory zones of the neuroepithelium, during the migratory phase of the tectum opticum development, are treated by means of mathematical tools of recognized utility in signal analysis. It is shown that the wavelet-based multiresolution method and the classical spectral analysis allow to mathematically describe the presence of an asymmetry in the dynamics of operation of the postmitotic neuronal migration that takes place during the central nervous system development. This asymmetry can be interpreted as an indirect manifestation of the organizing activity of the isthmic organizer. The wavelet-based multiresolution method also allows to characterize the neuronal migration dynamics as a process fitting a fractional Brownian motion model.