Evolutionary continuity and divergence of auditory dorsal and ventral pathways in primates revealed by ultra- high field diffusion MRI

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhang, Yang; Shen, Sherry Xinyi; Bibic, Adnan; Wang, Xiaoqin
• 署名单位: Johns Hopkins University; Johns Hopkins University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-12396
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2313831121
• 发表日期: 2024-02-27
• 关键词: arcuate fasciculus; common marmoset; cortical connections; vocal control; language; cortex; brain; pitch; REPRESENTATION; subdivisions

摘要

Auditory dorsal and ventral pathways in the human brain play important roles in supporting speech and language processing. However, the evolutionary root of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brain is unclear. By parcellating the auditory cortex of marmosets (a New World monkey species), macaques (an Old World monkey species), and humans using the same individual- based analysis method and tracking the pathways from the auditory cortex based on multi- shell diffusion- weighted MRI (dMRI), homologous auditory dorsal and ventral fiber tracks were identified in these primate species. The ventral pathway was found to be well conserved in all three primate species analyzed but extend to more anterior temporal regions in humans. In contrast, the dorsal pathway showed a divergence between monkey and human brains. First, frontal regions in the human brain have stronger connections to the higher- level auditory regions than to the lower- level auditory regions along the dorsal pathway, while frontal regions in the monkey brain show opposite connection patterns along the dorsal pathway. Second, the left lateralization of the dorsal pathway is only found in humans. Moreover, the connectivity strength of the dorsal pathway in marmosets is more similar to that of humans than macaques. These results demonstrate the continuity and divergence of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brains along the evolutionary path, suggesting that the putative neural networks supporting human speech and language processing might have emerged early in primate evolution.