Chimps Not Chumps

MRI-based study reveals new human-like brain characteristics

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New MRI-based studies present more evidence that the brains of chimpanzees are human-like in terms of the relationships among brain asymmetry, handedness and language, according to research undertaken at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Understanding our evolutionary cousins helps us understand what makes us human.

Two related reports appear in the December issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.

In the first study, Hani Freeman, BA, and Claudio Catalupo, PhD, of Georgia State University, Atlanta, and William Hopkins, PhD, of Berry College, Mount Berry, Ga., took MRI scans of 60 chimpanzees to measure the anatomy of two key structures in their brains' limbic systems, an early-evolving central region that includes the hippocampus and amygdala. In the MRI pictures, the hippocampus (which regulates learning and consolidation of spatial memory, mood, appetite and sleep) was asymmetrical, its right half significantly larger than its left. This asymmetry was bigger in males. These findings are consistent with studies of human hippocampi, which are also asymmetrical. At the same time, just as in humans, the amygdalae of the chimps were symmetrical.

Studies such as this confirm that human and chimp brains are not only asymmetrical, but asymmetrical in the same way. The findings echo previous looks at the non-limbic parts of chimpanzee brains, which also appear human-like in their patterns of asymmetry.

Says Hopkins, "The limbic system asymmetries advance the position that asymmetries are fundamental aspects of the nervous system of all primates and apply to more primitive systems in the brain."

The asymmetries influence behavior. Given the new findings about chimps and previous findings that the limbic system affects human facial expression and emotions, it now seems more clear why across primates, says Hopkins, the left half of the face – controlled by the right side of the brain – is more emotionally expressive. In addition, a right-dominant hippocampus would explain apes' well-developed spatial memory. Again, that parallels how the right hippocampus in humans is involved in spatial memory.

In a second study, Hopkins and Cantalupo report the first-ever evidence of an association between hand preference and asymmetries in three areas of the brain cortex in chimps. Observing 66 chimps, they correlated asymmetries in brain anatomy with three measures of handedness.

Findings suggest that left-handed and right-handed chimps differ relative to the asymmetries in two primary motor areas: the planum temporale and the precentral gyrus. The results "challenge the long-held belief that the neurobiological substrates for handedness are unique to humans," write the authors. Just as in humans, neuroanatomy governs whether a chimp becomes a lefty or a righty. Hopkins points out that chimps are also strongly right-handed for manual gestures and throwing, a clue to the origins of more general right-hand dominance in both chimps and humans.

— American Psychological Association