Broca's area homologue in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): probabilistic mapping, asymmetry, and comparison to humans.
Broca's area homologue in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): probabilistic mapping, asymmetry, and comparison to humans.
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DOI：
10.1093/cercor/bhp138
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发表时间：
2009-07
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Natalie M. Schenker;W. Hopkins;M. A. Spocter;Amy R Garrison;C. Stimpson;J. Erwin;P. Hof;C. Sherwood
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Natalie M. Schenker;W. Hopkins;M. A. Spocter;Amy R Garrison;C. Stimpson;J. Erwin;P. Hof;C. Sherwood
在人类进化过程中发生的支持语言的神经变化知之甚少。作为与人类比较的基础，我们使用基于设计的体视学方法来估计12只黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）大脑两半球Brodmann区44和45的体积，总神经元数量和神经元密度，黑猩猩是我们物种最亲近的亲属之一。我们发现，黑猩猩44和45区的地形位置和定量细胞结构的个体间变异程度与以往研究中在人类中观察到的相当。然而，与人类记录的不对称性相反，我们没有发现黑猩猩44和45区的任何措施的显着人口水平的半球不对称性。此外，在2种不同的行为任务中，体视学数据的不对称性与基于磁共振成像的额下回形态学测量或手部偏好之间没有关系。这些发现表明，在人类进化过程中，左半球的布罗卡区相对大小有所扩大，可能是为了适应我们物种的语言能力。
Neural changes that occurred during human evolution to support language are poorly understood. As a basis of comparison to humans, we used design-based stereological methods to estimate volumes, total neuron numbers, and neuron densities in Brodmann's areas 44 and 45 in both cerebral hemispheres of 12 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), one of our species' closest living relatives. We found that the degree of interindividual variation in the topographic location and quantitative cytoarchitecture of areas 44 and 45 in chimpanzees was comparable to that seen in humans from previous studies. However, in contrast to the documented asymmetries in humans, we did not find significant population-level hemispheric asymmetry for any measures of areas 44 and 45 in chimpanzees. Furthermore, there was no relationship between asymmetries of stereological data and magnetic resonance imaging-based measures of inferior frontal gyrus morphology or hand preference on 2 different behavioral tasks. These findings suggest that Broca's area in the left hemisphere expanded in relative size during human evolution, possibly as an adaptation for our species' language abilities.