Psychology & Behavioral Science Active Updated Sep 30, 2026
The brain's two separate lineages
Where it stands as of Sep 23, 2026
A Stanford Medicine study published September 18 in Nature Neuroscience found, using both mouse and human stem cells, that the forebrain and midbrain arise from one population of neural progenitor cells and the hindbrain from an entirely separate one, each carrying a distinct chromatin landscape from remarkably early in development. This overturns the long-standing assumption of one progenitor lineage that diverges late. It is not yet known what this means for how the brain recovers from injury or why certain condi
The story so far
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Sep 30, 2026 Latest
PsyPost reported further detail on the Nature Neuroscience study: it challenges a model dating to Pieter Nieuwkoop in 1952, and Stanford's Kyle Loh said his team did not expect two different sources. The hindbrain runs breathing, swallowing and sleep and is hit by motor neuron diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy and ALS, and the coverage cited a 2026 study in which stem cells steered by hindbrain-like and spinal cord-like routes to the same neuron type showed different gene activity.
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Sep 23, 2026
A Stanford Medicine team using mouse and human stem cells found two entirely separate populations of neural progenitor cells, one giving rise to the forebrain and midbrain and the other to the hindbrain, each with its own distinct chromatin landscape from early in development, published September 18 in Nature Neuroscience.
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