Connectivity Reveals the Relationships between Human Brain Areas Associated with High-Level Linguistic Processing and Macaque Brain Areas

TL;DR

This study finds that macaque brains have regions with connectivity patterns similar to those in human high-level language processing areas.

Contribution

The study identifies homologous brain regions in macaques with connectivity profiles similar to human language regions.

Findings

Macaques have brain regions with connectivity patterns resembling human high-level language processing regions.

Human language regions maintain structural connectivity similar to those in macaques despite functional specialization.

Homologous target areas were identified using white-matter fiber bundle connections.

Abstract

Cross-species research has advanced human understanding of brain regions, with cross-species comparisons using magnetic resonance imaging technology becoming increasingly common. Currently, cross-species research on human language regions has primarily focused on traditional brain areas such as the Broca region. While some studies have indicated that human language function also involves other language regions, the corresponding relationships between these brain regions in humans and macaques remain unclear. This study calculated the strength of the connections between the high-level language processing regions in human and macaque brains, identified homologous target areas based on the structural connections of white-matter fiber bundles, and compared the connectivity profiles of both species. The results of the experiment demonstrated that macaques possess brain regions which exhibit connectivity patterns resembling those found in human high-level language processing regions. This discovery suggests that while the function of a human brain region is specialized, it still maintains a structural connectivity similar to that seen in macaques.

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