Diffusion MRI data, sulcal anatomy, and tractography for eight species from the Primate Brain Bank

Katherine L Bryant,Martijn P Van Den Heuvel,Lianne H Scholtens,Dirk Jan Ardesch,Lea Roumazeilles,Karla L Miller,Jerome Sallet,Rogier B Mars,Alexandre A Khrapitchev,Wenchuan Wu,Benjamin C Tendler

doi:10.1007/s00429-021-02268-x

Abstract

Large-scale comparative neuroscience requires data from many species and, ideally, at multiple levels of description. Here, we contribute to this endeavor by presenting diffusion and structural MRI data from eight primate species that have not or rarely been described in the literature. The selected samples from the Primate Brain Bank cover a prosimian, New and Old World monkeys, and a great ape. We present preliminary labelling of the cortical sulci and tractography of the optic radiation, dorsal part of the cingulum bundle, and dorsal parietal–frontal and ventral temporal-frontal longitudinal white matter tracts. Both dorsal and ventral association fiber systems could be observed in all samples, with the dorsal tracts occupying much less relative volume in the prosimian than in other species. We discuss the results in the context of known primate specializations and present hypotheses for further research. All data and results presented here are available online as a resource for the scientific community.

Highlights

The comparative method is one of the primary ways to gain insight into brain evolution
We present labelling of sulcal anatomy based on reconstructions of the brains’ cortical surfaces and tractography of some of the major white matter fiber bundles using standardized protocols
As a first reconstructed tract, we identified the optic radiation, a projection fiber tract carrying fibers from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) toward the primary visual cortex

Summary

Introduction

The comparative method is one of the primary ways to gain insight into brain evolution. In the study of humans and other primates, this paradigm has been very successful in elucidating the evolution of the size of the brain and some its constituent parts [e.g., Miller et al (2019); Smaers and Vanier (2019)]. These methods are able to Katherine L. Identify specializations in different branches of the primate tree, including instances of mosaic evolution (Barton and Harvey 2000; Smaers and Soligo 2013), a poverty of data in this field has meant that few datasets are available and definition of constituent parts is often difficult to determine, giving rise to strong controversies in the field.

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