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Willbrand EH, Tsai YH, Gagnant T, Weiner KS. Updating the sulcal landscape of the human lateral parieto-occipital junction provides anatomical, functional, and cognitive insights. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.06.08.544284. [PMID: 38798426 PMCID: PMC11118496 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.08.544284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Recent work has uncovered relationships between evolutionarily new small and shallow cerebral indentations, or sulci, and human behavior. Yet, this relationship remains unexplored in the lateral parietal cortex (LPC) and the lateral parieto-occipital junction (LPOJ). After defining thousands of sulci in a young adult cohort, we revised the previous LPC/LPOJ sulcal landscape to include four previously overlooked, small, shallow, and variable sulci. One of these sulci (ventral supralateral occipital sulcus, slocs-v) is present in nearly every hemisphere and is morphologically, architecturally, and functionally dissociable from neighboring sulci. A data-driven, model-based approach, relating sulcal depth to behavior further revealed that the morphology of only a subset of LPC/LPOJ sulci, including the slocs-v, is related to performance on a spatial orientation task. Our findings build on classic neuroanatomical theories and identify new neuroanatomical targets for future "precision imaging" studies exploring the relationship among brain structure, brain function, and cognitive abilities in individual participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan H. Willbrand
- Medical Scientist Training Program, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI USA
| | - Yi-Heng Tsai
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Thomas Gagnant
- Medical Science Faculty, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Kevin S. Weiner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Ramos Benitez J, Kannan S, Hastings WL, Parker BJ, Willbrand EH, Weiner KS. Ventral temporal and posteromedial sulcal morphology in autism spectrum disorder. Neuropsychologia 2024; 195:108786. [PMID: 38181845 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
Two parallel research tracks link the morphology of small and shallow indentations, or sulci, of the cerebral cortex with functional features of the cortex and human cognition, respectively. The first track identified a relationship between the mid-fusiform sulcus (MFS) in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) and cognition in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The second track identified a new sulcus, the inframarginal sulcus (IFRMS), that serves as a tripartite landmark within the posteromedial cortex (PMC). As VTC and PMC are structurally and functionally different in ASD, here, we integrated these two tracks and tested if there are morphological differences in VTC and PMC sulci in a sample of young (5-17 years old) male participants (50 participants with ASD and 50 neurotypical controls). Our approach replicates and extends recent findings in four ways. First, regarding replication, the standard deviation (STD) of MFS cortical thickness (CT) was increased in ASD. Second, MFS length was shorter in ASD. Third, the CT STD effect extended to other VTC and to PMC sulci. Fourth, additional morphological features of VTC sulci (depth, surface area, gray matter volume) and PMC sulci (mean CT) were decreased in ASD, including putative tertiary sulci, which emerge last in gestation and continue to develop after birth. To our knowledge, this study is the most extensive comparison of the sulcal landscape (including putative tertiary sulci) in multiple cortical expanses between individuals with ASD and NTs based on manually defined sulci at the level of individual hemispheres, providing novel targets for future studies of neurodevelopmental disorders more broadly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Ramos Benitez
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Sandhya Kannan
- Department of Radiology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - William L Hastings
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Benjamin J Parker
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Ethan H Willbrand
- Medical Scientist Training Program, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Kevin S Weiner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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Willbrand EH, Jackson S, Chen S, Hathaway CB, Voorhies WI, Bunge SA, Weiner KS. Sulcal variability in anterior lateral prefrontal cortex contributes to variability in reasoning performance among young adults. Brain Struct Funct 2024; 229:387-402. [PMID: 38184493 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02734-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 11/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/08/2024]
Abstract
Identifying structure-function correspondences is a major goal among biologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and brain mappers. Recent studies have identified relationships between performance on cognitive tasks and the presence or absence of small, shallow indentations, or sulci, of the human brain. Building on the previous finding that the presence of the ventral para-intermediate frontal sulcus (pimfs-v) in the left anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (aLPFC) was related to reasoning task performance in children and adolescents, we tested whether this relationship extended to a different sample, age group, and reasoning task. As predicted, the presence of this aLPFC sulcus was also associated with higher reasoning scores in young adults (ages 22-36). These findings have not only direct developmental, but also evolutionary relevance-as recent work shows that the pimfs-v is exceedingly rare in chimpanzees. Thus, the pimfs-v is a key developmental, cognitive, and evolutionarily relevant feature that should be considered in future studies examining how the complex relationships among multiscale anatomical and functional features of the brain give rise to abstract thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan H Willbrand
- Medical Scientist Training Program, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of WI-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Samantha Jackson
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Szeshuen Chen
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | | | - Willa I Voorhies
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Silvia A Bunge
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Kevin S Weiner
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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Willbrand EH, Bunge SA, Weiner KS. Neuroanatomical and Functional Dissociations between Variably Present Anterior Lateral Prefrontal Sulci. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:1846-1867. [PMID: 37677051 PMCID: PMC10586811 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is an evolutionarily expanded region in humans that is critical for numerous complex functions, many of which are largely hominoid specific. Although recent work shows that the presence or absence of specific sulci in anterior LPFC is associated with cognitive performance across age groups, it is unknown whether the presence of these structures relates to individual differences in the functional organization of LPFC. To fill this gap in knowledge, we leveraged multimodal neuroimaging data from two samples encompassing 82 young adult humans (aged 22-36 years) and show that the dorsal and ventral components of the paraintermediate frontal sulcus, or pimfs, present distinct morphological (surface area), architectural (thickness and myelination), and functional (resting-state connectivity networks) properties. We further contextualize the pimfs components within classic and modern cortical parcellations. Taken together, the dorsal and ventral pimfs components mark transitions in LPFC anatomy and function, across metrics and parcellations. These results emphasize that the pimfs is a critical structure to consider when examining individual differences in the anatomical and functional organization of LPFC and suggest that future individual-level parcellations could benefit from incorporating sulcal anatomy when delineating LPFC cortical regions.
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Willbrand EH, Maboudian SA, Kelly JP, Parker BJ, Foster BL, Weiner KS. Sulcal morphology of posteromedial cortex substantially differs between humans and chimpanzees. Commun Biol 2023; 6:586. [PMID: 37264068 PMCID: PMC10235074 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04953-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies identify a surprising coupling between evolutionarily new sulci and the functional organization of human posteromedial cortex (PMC). Yet, no study has compared this modern PMC sulcal patterning between humans and non-human hominoids. To fill this gap in knowledge, we first manually defined over 2500 PMC sulci in 120 chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes) hemispheres and 144 human hemispheres. We uncovered four new sulci, and quantitatively identified species differences in sulcal incidence, depth, and surface area. Interestingly, some sulci are more common in humans and others, in chimpanzees. Further, we found that the prominent marginal ramus of the cingulate sulcus differs significantly between species. Contrary to classic observations, the present results reveal that the surface anatomy of PMC substantially differs between humans and chimpanzees-findings which lay a foundation for better understanding the evolution of neuroanatomical-functional and neuroanatomical-behavioral relationships in this highly expanded region of the human cerebral cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan H Willbrand
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Samira A Maboudian
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Joseph P Kelly
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Benjamin J Parker
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Brett L Foster
- Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Kevin S Weiner
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
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Willbrand EH, Bunge SA, Weiner KS. Neuroanatomical and functional dissociations between variably present anterior lateral prefrontal sulci. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.25.542301. [PMID: 37292839 PMCID: PMC10245924 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.25.542301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is an evolutionarily expanded region in humans that is critical for numerous complex functions, many of which are largely hominoid-specific. While recent work shows that the presence or absence of specific sulci in anterior LPFC is associated with cognitive performance across age groups, it is unknown whether the presence of these structures relates to individual differences in the functional organization of LPFC. To fill this gap in knowledge, we leveraged multimodal neuroimaging data from 72 young adult humans aged 22-36 and show that dorsal and ventral components of the paraintermediate frontal sulcus (pimfs) present distinct morphological (surface area), architectural (thickness and myelination), and functional (resting-state connectivity networks) properties. We further contextualize the pimfs components within classic and modern cortical parcellations. Taken together, the dorsal and ventral pimfs components mark transitions in anatomy and function in LPFC, across metrics and parcellations. These results emphasize that the pimfs is a critical structure to consider when examining individual differences in the anatomical and functional organization of LPFC and highlight the importance of considering individual anatomy when investigating structural and functional features of the cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan H. Willbrand
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
| | - Silvia A. Bunge
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
| | - Kevin S. Weiner
- Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
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