Laboratory of Neuro- and Psychophysiology, K.U. Leuven Medical School, Leuven, Belgium.
Nat Methods. 2012 Feb 5;9(3):277-82. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1868.
Evolution-driven functional changes in the primate brain are typically assessed by aligning monkey and human activation maps using cortical surface expansion models. These models use putative homologous areas as registration landmarks, assuming they are functionally correspondent. For cases in which functional changes have occurred in an area, this assumption prohibits to reveal whether other areas may have assumed lost functions. Here we describe a method to examine functional correspondences across species. Without making spatial assumptions, we assessed similarities in sensory-driven functional magnetic resonance imaging responses between monkey (Macaca mulatta) and human brain areas by temporal correlation. Using natural vision data, we revealed regions for which functional processing has shifted to topologically divergent locations during evolution. We conclude that substantial evolution-driven functional reorganizations have occurred, not always consistent with cortical expansion processes. This framework for evaluating changes in functional architecture is crucial to building more accurate evolutionary models.
通过使用皮质表面扩张模型来对齐猴子和人类的激活图，通常可以评估灵长类动物大脑中的进化驱动的功能变化。这些模型使用假定的同源区域作为注册地标，假设它们在功能上是对应的。对于在一个区域中发生功能变化的情况，这种假设禁止揭示其他区域是否可能承担了失去的功能。在这里，我们描述了一种跨物种检查功能对应关系的方法。我们没有进行空间假设，而是通过时间相关来评估猴子（Macaca mulatta）和人类大脑区域之间的感觉驱动功能磁共振成像响应的相似性。使用自然视觉数据，我们揭示了在进化过程中功能处理已经转移到拓扑上不同位置的区域。我们的结论是，在进化过程中发生了大量的功能重新组织，并不总是与皮质扩张过程一致。这种评估功能架构变化的框架对于构建更准确的进化模型至关重要。
