Abstract
The macaque brain serves as a model for the human brain, but its suitability is challenged by unique human features, including connectivity reconfigurations, which emerged during primate evolution. We perform a quantitative comparative analysis of the whole brain macroscale structural connectivity of the two species. Our findings suggest that the human and macaque brain as a whole are similarly wired. A region-wise analysis reveals many interspecies similarities of connectivity patterns, but also lack thereof, primarily involving cingulate regions. We unravel a common structural backbone in both species involving a highly overlapping set of regions. This structural backbone, important for mediating information across the brain, seems to constitute a feature of the primate brain persevering evolution. Our findings illustrate novel evolutionary aspects at the macroscale connectivity level and offer a quantitative translational bridge between macaque and human research.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e1003529 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | PLoS Computational Biology |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
Keywords
- FUNCTIONAL-ORGANIZATION
- CORTICAL PARCELLATIONS
- PREFRONTAL CORTEX
- PARIETAL CORTEX
- FRONTAL-CORTEX
- DIFFUSION MRI
- MONKEY
- NETWORKS
- PATHWAYS
- RECONSTRUCTION