Neuronal populations in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala are differentially increased in humans compared with apes: a stereological study.
Neuronal populations in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala are differentially increased in humans compared with apes: a stereological study.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/cne.23118
复制
发表时间：
2012-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Semendeferi K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barger N;Stefanacci L;Schumann CM;Sherwood CC;Annese J;Allman JM;Buckwalter JA;Hof PR;Semendeferi K
在人类和非人类灵长类动物中，杏仁核在情感和社会行为中起着至关重要的作用。在解剖学上，单个杏仁核与许多神经系统相连，这些神经系统在灵长类动物的进化过程中要么是不同的扩展，要么是保守的。为了研究人类和类人猿的杏仁核进化，我们使用基于设计的立体学方法获得了人类、所有类人猿、小类人猿和一种猴子的杏仁核和四个主要杏仁核（外侧核、基底核、副基底核和中央核）的神经元计数。我们的目标是确定物种之间分布在单个核上的神经元的数量或百分比是否存在显著差异。此外，对独立对比数据进行回归分析，以确定是否有个别物种偏离异速生长趋势。有两个主要发现。在人类中，杏仁核中外侧核包含的神经元数量最多，而在类人猿中，基底核包含的神经元数量最多。此外，人类侧核包含的神经元比非人类灵长类动物数据的异速回归预测的多59%。基于在类人猿杏仁核的比较研究中分析的最大样本，我们的研究结果表明，强调外侧核是人类进化过程中杏仁核特化的主要特征。
In human and nonhuman primates, the amygdala is known to play critical roles in emotional and social behavior. Anatomically, individual amygdaloid nuclei are connected with many neural systems that are either differentially expanded or conserved over the course of primate evolution. To address amygdala evolution in humans and our closest living relatives, the apes, we used design-based stereological methods to obtain neuron counts for the amygdala and each of four major amygdaloid nuclei (the lateral, basal, accessory basal, and central nuclei) in humans, all great ape species, lesser apes, and one monkey species. Our goal was to determine whether there were significant differences in the number or percent of neurons distributed to individual nuclei among species. Additionally, regression analyses were performed on independent contrast data to determine whether any individual species deviated from allometric trends. There were two major findings. In humans, the lateral nucleus contained the highest number of neurons in the amygdala, whereas in apes the basal nucleus contained the highest number of neurons. Additionally, the human lateral nucleus contained 59% more neurons than predicted by allometric regressions on nonhuman primate data. Based on the largest sample ever analyzed in a comparative study of the hominoid amygdala, our findings suggest that an emphasis on the lateral nucleus is the main characteristic of amygdala specialization over the course of human evolution.