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The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with comparative DTI

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 426–428 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The arcuate fasciculus is a white-matter fiber tract that is involved in human language. Here we compared cortical connectivity in humans, chimpanzees and macaques (Macaca mulatta) and found a prominent temporal lobe projection of the human arcuate fasciculus that is much smaller or absent in nonhuman primates. This human specialization may be relevant to the evolution of language.

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Figure 1: Color maps of principal diffusion direction in one in vivo human, one postmortem chimpanzee and one postmortem rhesus macaque brain.
Figure 2: Three-dimensional tractography results.
Figure 3: Two-dimensional tractography results.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. Shen and F. Zhao for technical assistance, and M.F.S. Rushworth and M.J. Konner for many helpful comments. We also thank P. Croxson for collecting the human scans and M.-M. Carrasco for assistance with tracking control pathways. This work was supported by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience Science and Technology Center Program of the National Science Foundation under agreement no. IBN-9876754, Emory University Research Committee, James S. McDonnell Foundation grant 21002093 to T.M.P., RO1EB002009 to X.H., the Yerkes Base Grant (NIH RR-00165) and the UK Medical Research Council to T.E.J.B.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 207 Anthropology Building, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, 30322, Georgia, USA

    James K Rilling & Matthew F Glasser

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, 1639 Pierce Drive, Suite 4000, Atlanta, Georgia, 30322, USA

    James K Rilling

  3. Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Emory University, PO Box 3966, Atlanta, 30302, Georgia, USA

    James K Rilling & Todd M Preuss

  4. Division of Psychobiology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center,

    James K Rilling

  5. 954 Gatewood Road, NE, Atlanta, 30329, Georgia, USA

    James K Rilling

  6. Division of Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 954 Gatewood Road, NE, Atlanta, 30329, Georgia, USA

    Todd M Preuss

  7. Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University Hospital, Room H183, 1364 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, 30322, Georgia, USA

    Todd M Preuss

  8. Biomedical Imaging Technology Center, Emory University, Hospital Education Annex, 531 Asbury Circle, Suite 305, Atlanta, 30322, Georgia, USA

    Xiangyang Ma, Tiejun Zhao & Xiaoping Hu

  9. FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, J R Hospital, Headley Way, Headington, OX3 9DU, Oxford, UK

    Timothy E J Behrens

  10. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK

    Timothy E J Behrens

Authors
  1. James K Rilling
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  2. Matthew F Glasser
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  3. Todd M Preuss
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  4. Xiangyang Ma
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  5. Tiejun Zhao
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  6. Xiaoping Hu
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  7. Timothy E J Behrens
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Contributions

J.K.R. designed the study, acquired the nonhuman data, supervised analyses and wrote the paper. M.F.G. analyzed the data. T.M.P. acquired the nonhuman brains, assisted with data analysis and presentation, and wrote the paper. X.M., T.Z. and X.H. assisted with nonhuman primate protocol development, and T.E.J.B. and Oxford colleagues acquired the human data. T.E.J.B. oversaw the data-analysis strategy with the exception of the in vivo chimpanzee and macaque data presented in the supplementary information.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James K Rilling.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–4, Table 1 and Methods (PDF 700 kb)

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Rilling, J., Glasser, M., Preuss, T. et al. The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with comparative DTI. Nat Neurosci 11, 426–428 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn2072

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