Journal Article

PreJuSER-14894

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Primate Prefrontal Cortex Evolution: Human Brains are the Extreme of a Lateralized Ape Trend

Smaers, J. B. ; Steele, J. ; Case, C. R. ; Cowper, A. ; Amunts, K.FZJ* ; Zilles, K.FZJ*

2011
Karger Basel

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/7289  doi:10.1159/000323671

Abstract: The prefrontal cortex is commonly associated with cognitive capacities related to human uniqueness: purposeful actions towards higher-level goals, complex social information processing, introspection, and language. Comparative investigations of the prefrontal cortex may thus shed more light on the neural underpinnings of what makes us human. Using histological data from 19 anthropoid primate species (6 apes including humans and 13 monkeys), we investigate cross-species relative size changes along the anterior (prefrontal) and posterior (motor) axes of the cytoarchitectonically defined frontal lobe in both hemispheres. Results reveal different scaling coefficients in the left versus right prefrontal hemisphere, suggest that the primary factor underlying the evolution of primate brain architecture is left hemispheric prefrontal hyperscaling, and indicate that humans are the extreme of a left prefrontal ape specialization in relative white to grey matter volume. These results demonstrate a neural adaptive shift distinguishing the ape from the monkey radiation possibly related to a cognitive grade shift between (great) apes and other primates.

Keyword(s): Animals (MeSH) ; Biological Evolution (MeSH) ; Functional Laterality: physiology (MeSH) ; Hominidae: anatomy & histology (MeSH) ; Hominidae: growth & development (MeSH) ; Humans (MeSH) ; Male (MeSH) ; Prefrontal Cortex: anatomy & histology (MeSH) ; Prefrontal Cortex: growth & development (MeSH) ; J ; Prefrontal cortex (auto) ; Neocortex (auto) ; Lateralization (auto) ; Asymmetry (auto) ; Primate (auto) ; Allometry (auto)

Note: We would like to thank Axel Schleicher and John R. Skoyles for useful comments and discussion and Hartmut Mohlberg for making images with the delineation of the motor cortex available from the Julich/Dusseldorf brain atlas. For training in phylogenetic comparative methods, we thank the AnthroTree Workshop (supported by NSF BCS-0923791). This work was supported by the EC FP6 HANDTOMOUTH project (contract No. 29065).

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Molekulare Organisation des Gehirns (INM-2)
2. Strukturelle und funktionelle Organisation des Gehirns (INM-1)

Research Program(s):

1. Funktion und Dysfunktion des Nervensystems (FUEK409) (FUEK409)
2. 89571 - Connectivity and Activity (POF2-89571) (POF2-89571)

Appears in the scientific report 2011

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