1
|
Labra N, Mounier A, Leprince Y, Rivière D, Didier M, Bardinet E, Santin MD, Mangin JF, Filippo A, Albessard‐Ball L, Beaudet A, Broadfield D, Bruner E, Carlson KJ, Cofran Z, Falk D, Gilissen E, Gómez‐Robles A, Neubauer S, Pearson A, Röding C, Zhang Y, Balzeau A. What do brain endocasts tell us? A comparative analysis of the accuracy of sulcal identification by experts and perspectives in palaeoanthropology. J Anat 2024; 244:274-296. [PMID: 37935387 PMCID: PMC10780157 DOI: 10.1111/joa.13966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Palaeoneurology is a complex field as the object of study, the brain, does not fossilize. Studies rely therefore on the (brain) endocranial cast (often named endocast), the only available and reliable proxy for brain shape, size and details of surface. However, researchers debate whether or not specific marks found on endocasts correspond reliably to particular sulci and/or gyri of the brain that were imprinted in the braincase. The aim of this study is to measure the accuracy of sulcal identification through an experiment that reproduces the conditions that palaeoneurologists face when working with hominin endocasts. We asked 14 experts to manually identify well-known foldings in a proxy endocast that was obtained from an MRI of an actual in vivo Homo sapiens head. We observe clear differences in the results when comparing the non-corrected labels (the original labels proposed by each expert) with the corrected labels. This result illustrates that trying to reconstruct a sulcus following the very general known shape/position in the literature or from a mean specimen may induce a bias when looking at an endocast and trying to follow the marks observed there. We also observe that the identification of sulci appears to be better in the lower part of the endocast compared to the upper part. The results concerning specific anatomical traits have implications for highly debated topics in palaeoanthropology. Endocranial description of fossil specimens should in the future consider the variation in position and shape of sulci in addition to using models of mean brain shape. Moreover, it is clear from this study that researchers can perceive sulcal imprints with reasonably high accuracy, but their correct identification and labelling remains a challenge, particularly when dealing with extinct species for which we lack direct knowledge of the brain.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Labra
- Département Homme et EnvironnementUMR 7194, CNRS, PaleoFED Team, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelleParisFrance
| | - Aurélien Mounier
- Département Homme et EnvironnementUMR 7194, CNRS, PaleoFED Team, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelleParisFrance
- Turkana Basin InstituteNairobiKenya
| | - Yann Leprince
- Université Paris‐Saclay, CEA, CNRS UMR 9027, Baobab, NeuroSpinGif‐sur‐YvetteFrance
| | - Denis Rivière
- Université Paris‐Saclay, CEA, CNRS UMR 9027, Baobab, NeuroSpinGif‐sur‐YvetteFrance
| | - Mélanie Didier
- ICM—Institut du Cerveau, Hôpital Pitié‐Salpêtrière, Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche—CENIRParisFrance
| | - Eric Bardinet
- ICM—Institut du Cerveau, Hôpital Pitié‐Salpêtrière, Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche—CENIRParisFrance
| | - Mathieu D. Santin
- ICM—Institut du Cerveau, Hôpital Pitié‐Salpêtrière, Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche—CENIRParisFrance
| | - Jean François Mangin
- Université Paris‐Saclay, CEA, CNRS UMR 9027, Baobab, NeuroSpinGif‐sur‐YvetteFrance
| | - Andréa Filippo
- Département Homme et EnvironnementUMR 7194, CNRS, PaleoFED Team, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelleParisFrance
| | - Lou Albessard‐Ball
- Département Homme et EnvironnementUMR 7194, CNRS, PaleoFED Team, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelleParisFrance
- Department of ArchaeologyPalaeoHub, University of YorkYorkUK
| | - Amélie Beaudet
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Évolution, Paléoécosystèmes et Paléoprimatologie (PALEVOPRIM), UMR 7262 CNRSUniversité de PoitiersPoitiersFrance
| | | | - Emiliano Bruner
- Paleobiología, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución HumanaBurgosSpain
| | - Kristian J. Carlson
- Evolutionary Studies InstituteUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Palaeosciences CentreJohannesburgSouth Africa
- Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of MedicineUniversity of Southern CaliforniaCaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
| | - Zachary Cofran
- Anthropology DepartmentVassar CollegePoughkeepsieNew YorkUSA
| | - Dean Falk
- Department of AnthropologyFlorida State UniversityTallahasseeFloridaUSA
| | - Emmanuel Gilissen
- Department of African ZoologyRoyal Museum for Central AfricaTervurenBelgium
| | | | - Simon Neubauer
- Institute of Anatomy and Cell BiologyJohannes Kepler University LinzLinzAustria
| | - Alannah Pearson
- School of Archaeology and AnthropologyAustralian National UniversityCanberraAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
| | - Carolin Röding
- Paleoanthropology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and PaleoenvironmentEberhard Karls University of TübingenTübingenGermany
| | - Yameng Zhang
- Institute of Cultural HeritageShandong UniversityQingdaoShandongChina
| | - Antoine Balzeau
- Département Homme et EnvironnementUMR 7194, CNRS, PaleoFED Team, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelleParisFrance
- Department of African ZoologyRoyal Museum for Central AfricaTervurenBelgium
| |
Collapse
|