A Voxel-Based Morphometry Analysis of White Matter Asymmetries in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Department
Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has become an increasingly common method for assessing neuroanatomical asymmetries in human in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Here, we employed VBM to examine asymmetries in white matter in a sample of 48 chimpanzees (15 males and 33 females). T1-weighted MRI scans were segmented into white matter using FSL and registered to a common template. The segmented volumes were then flipped in the left-right axis and registered back to the template. The mirror image white matter volumes were then subtracted from the correctly oriented volumes and voxel-by-voxel t tests were performed. Twenty-seven significant lateralized clusters were found, including 18 in the left hemisphere and 9 in the right hemisphere. Several of the asymmetries were found in regions corresponding to well-known white matter tracts including the superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus and corticospinal tract.
Journal Title
Brain, Behavior and Evolution
Journal ISSN
0006--8977
Volume
76
Issue
2
First Page
93
Last Page
100
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1159/000319010