A collaborative group of scientists from China and other nations has produced the most detailed chimpanzee brain atlas to date, offering fresh perspectives on the evolution of the human brain, according to a report by Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday.
The research findings were published in the journal The Innovation.
Chimpanzees, as one of humans’ closest living relatives, possess brains roughly one-third the size of a human’s. Despite this, their neuroanatomy and cognitive functions share significant similarities with humans, making them a key species for studying human brain evolution.
“One of the primary challenges in comparative neuroscience across species is the lack of standardized, biologically meaningful brain reference systems,” explained Fan Lingzhong, the study’s corresponding author and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Automation.
By using brain connectivity data, researchers have successfully created the Chimpanzee Brainnetome Atlas (ChimpBNA), providing a novel tool for understanding brain structure and function.
This atlas revealed notable differe6bnces in connectivity patterns between humans and chimpanzees, particularly in the association cortices, indicating that brain evolution involves more intricate and detailed connectivity changes than previously recognized.
Fan highlighted that the ChimpBNA would be a valuable tool for neuroscience, providing new insights into the unique traits of the human brain.
He further noted that future efforts would focus on extending the application of cross-species brain atlases to deepen understanding of the nervous system’s evolution.
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