Bryant Katherine L, Camilleri Julia, Warrington Shaun, Blazquez Freches Guilherme, Sotiropoulos Stamatios N, Jbabdi Saad, Eickhoff Simon, Mars Rogier B
Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Institute for Language, Cognition, and the Brain (ILCB), Université Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France.
J Neurosci. 2025 Mar 17;45(15). doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2017-24.2025.
Determining the brain specializations unique to humans requires directly comparative anatomical information from other primates, especially our closest relatives. Human () (m/f), chimpanzee () (f), and rhesus macaque () (m/f) white matter atlases were used to create connectivity blueprints, i.e., descriptions of the cortical grey matter in terms of the connectivity with homologous white matter tracts. This allowed a quantitative comparative of cortical organization across the species. We identified human-unique connectivity profiles concentrated in temporal and parietal cortices, and hominid-unique organization in prefrontal cortex. Functional decoding revealed human-unique hotspots correlated with language processing and social cognition. Overall, our results counter models that assign primacy to prefrontal cortex for human uniqueness. Understanding what makes the human brain unique requires direct comparisons with other primates, particularly our closest relatives. Using connectivity blueprints, we compared to cortical organization of the human to that of the macaque and, for the first time, the chimpanzee. This approach revealed human-specific connectivity patterns in the temporal and parietal lobes, regions linked to language and social cognition. These findings challenge traditional views that prioritize the prefrontal cortex in defining human cognitive uniqueness, emphasizing instead the importance of temporal and parietal cortical evolution in shaping our species' abilities.
确定人类特有的大脑特化需要来自其他灵长类动物，尤其是我们最近的亲属的直接比较解剖学信息。使用人类（男/女）、黑猩猩（雌性）和恒河猴（男/女）的白质图谱来创建连接蓝图，即根据与同源白质束的连接来描述皮质灰质。这使得能够对跨物种的皮质组织进行定量比较。我们确定了集中在颞叶和顶叶皮质的人类特有的连接模式，以及前额叶皮质中人类特有的组织。功能解码揭示了与语言处理和社会认知相关的人类特有的热点。总体而言，我们的结果与将人类独特性首要归因于前额叶皮质的模型相悖。了解人类大脑独特之处需要与其他灵长类动物，特别是我们最近的亲属进行直接比较。利用连接蓝图，我们将人类的皮质组织与猕猴以及首次与黑猩猩的皮质组织进行了比较。这种方法揭示了颞叶和顶叶中人类特有的连接模式，这些区域与语言和社会认知相关。这些发现挑战了传统观点，即传统观点在定义人类认知独特性时优先考虑前额叶皮质，而是强调颞叶和顶叶皮质进化在塑造我们物种能力方面的重要性。
