1. Lateralization of minicolumns in human planum temporale is absent in nonhuman primate cortex
- Author
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Mark S. Litaker, Manuel F. Casanova, Emil Roy, Daniel P. Buxhoeveden, and Andrew E. Switala
- Subjects
Pan troglodytes ,Planum temporale ,Mri studies ,Lateralization of brain function ,Behavioral Neuroscience ,Developmental Neuroscience ,Species Specificity ,Cortex (anatomy) ,medicine ,Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ,Brain asymmetry ,Animals ,Humans ,Dominance, Cerebral ,Ultrasonography ,Neurons ,Biological Evolution ,Macaca mulatta ,Nonhuman primate ,Temporal Lobe ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Laterality ,Psychology ,Neuroscience ,Algorithms ,Software ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Gross analyses of large brain areas, as in MRI studies of macroanatomical structures, average subtle alterations in small regions, inadvertently missing significant anomalies. We developed a computerized imaging program to microscopically examine minicolumns and used it to study Nissl-stained slides of normal human, chimpanzee, and rhesus monkey brains in a region of the planum temporale. With this method, we measured the width of cell columns, the peripheral neuropil space, the spacing density of neurons within columns, and the Gray Level index per minicolumn. Only human brain tissue revealed robust asymmetry in two aspects of minicolumn morphology: wider columns and more neuropil space on the left side. This asymmetry was absent in chimpanzee and rhesus monkey brains.
- Published
- 2001