Lateralization of minicolumns in human planum temporale is absent in nonhuman primate cortex.
Gross analyses of large brain areas, as in MRI studies of macroanatomical structures, average subtle alterations in small regions, inadvertently missing significant anomalies. We developed a computerized imaging program to microscopically examine minicolumns and used it to study Nissl-stained slides of normal human, chimpanzee, and rhesus monkey brains in a region of the planum temporale. With this method, we measured the width of cell columns, the peripheral neuropil space, the spacing density of neurons within columns, and the Gray Level index per minicolumn. Only human brain tissue revealed robust asymmetry in two aspects of minicolumn morphology: wider columns and more neuropil space on the left side. This asymmetry was absent in chimpanzee and rhesus monkey brains.
Buxhoeveden
D P
DP
Medical College of Georgia, Downtown VA Medical Center, Psychiatry Service, Augusta, Ga. 30904, USA. danb@psych.mcg.edu
Switala
A E
AE
Litaker
M
M
Roy
E
E
Casanova
M F
MF
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012984:Software; D013045:Species Specificity; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014463:Ultrasonography