An anthropoid/strepsirrhine divergence in ventral visual stream connectivity
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The ventral visual stream has undergone extensive reorganization within the primate lineage. While some work has examined restructuring of the ventral prefrontal cortical gray matter across primates, comparative studies of white matter connectivity are lacking primarily due to difficulties in data acquisition and processing. Here, we present a data-driven approach to the study of white matter connectivity using postmortem diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. With this approach, we reconstruct anterior temporal-frontal and occipitotemporal-frontal connections across 2 anthropoids and 1 strepsirrhine: the rhesus macaque, the black-capped squirrel monkey, and the ring-tailed lemur. We find that the anthropoids exhibit more dorsal prefrontal innervation of these ventral visual connections. This study supports the hypothesis that anthropoid primates underwent extensive reorganization of both gray and white matter during their emergence as visual foragers in a complex ecological niche. The data-driven techniques presented here enable further research on white matter connectivity in previously understudied species.
Source: Cerebral Cortex
Language: English
Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $5,038
Awards: The comparative connectome, G1704435659, Effects of lifestyle and phylogeny on occipital lobe organisation across primate species, Quantitative translational neuroscience: Bridging preclinical and human neuroscience research, A cross-species, cross-modal approach to computational neuroanatomy, Brain connectivity metrology for personalised neuroimaging in health and disease, G651755458, Effects of lifestyle and phylogeny on occipital lobe organisation across primate species
OpenAlex ID: W4416738901