文章基本信息

标题：Evolutionary expansion of connectivity between multimodal association areas in the human brain compared with chimpanzees
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作者：Dirk Jan Ardesch ; Lianne H. Scholtens ; Longchuan Li 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2019
卷号：116
期号：14
页码：7101-7106
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1818512116
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The development of complex cognitive functions during human evolution coincides with pronounced encephalization and expansion of white matter, the brain’s infrastructure for region-to-region communication. We investigated adaptations of the human macroscale brain network by comparing human brain wiring with that of the chimpanzee, one of our closest living primate relatives. White matter connectivity networks were reconstructed using diffusion-weighted MRI in humans ( n = 57) and chimpanzees ( n = 20) and then analyzed using network neuroscience tools. We demonstrate higher network centrality of connections linking multimodal association areas in humans compared with chimpanzees, together with a more pronounced modular topology of the human connectome. Furthermore, connections observed in humans but not in chimpanzees particularly link multimodal areas of the temporal, lateral parietal, and inferior frontal cortices, including tracts important for language processing. Network analysis demonstrates a particularly high contribution of these connections to global network integration in the human brain. Taken together, our comparative connectome findings suggest an evolutionary shift in the human brain toward investment of neural resources in multimodal connectivity facilitating neural integration, combined with an increase in language-related connectivity supporting functional specialization.
关键词：connectome ; evolution ; chimpanzee ; multimodal ; comparative connectomics