HEMISPHERIC SPECIALIZATION AND COMMUNICATION

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. This year, studies in our laboratory focused on the development and implementation of a novel software program that allows for the automated extraction of cortical sulci from magnetic resonance images. The sucli can then be quantified on a number of dimensions including surface area, mean and maximum depth, grey matter thickness and fold opening. Our initial studies were conducted in a sample of 84 chimpanzees and we found significant population-level asymmetries for a number of sulci, notably the sylvian fissure and fronto-orbital sulcus, sulci that are landmarks used to delineate Broca's and Wernicke's areas. We further found that variation in the volumes and asymmetries of the frontal lobe sulci were associated with behavioral measures of oro-facial motor control in the chimpanzees.