Intrinsic functional and structural network organization in the macaque insula

Abstract

Abstract In recent decades, in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have provided previously inaccessible insights into the structure and function of healthy and pathological human brains in the laboratory and the clinic. However, the correlational nature of this work and relatively low resolution mean that ground truth neuroanatomical studies and causal manipulations of neural circuitry must still occur in animal models offering greater tractability and higher resolution, rendering a scale and species gap in translation. Here, we bridge this gap with a detailed, multimodal investigation of the macaque insula in vivo. Using both functional and diffusion MRI—tools available for use in humans—we demonstrate a neural architecture in the macaque insula with clear correspondence to prior in vivo MRI findings in humans and postmortem cytoarchitectural and tract-tracing studies in monkeys. Results converged across analysis methods and imaging modalities, supporting the translational potential of the macaque model.