Evolution of cortical geometry and its link to function, behaviour and ecology

Ernst Schwartz, Karl-Heinz Nenning, Katja Heuer, Nathan Jeffery, Ornella C. Bertrand, Roberto Toro, Gregor Kasprian, Daniela Prayer and Georg Langs ()
Additional contact information
Ernst Schwartz: Medical University of Vienna
Karl-Heinz Nenning: Medical University of Vienna
Katja Heuer: Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique
Nathan Jeffery: University of Liverpool
Ornella C. Bertrand: Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès.
Roberto Toro: Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique
Gregor Kasprian: Medical University of Vienna
Daniela Prayer: Medical University of Vienna
Georg Langs: Medical University of Vienna

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Abstract Studies in comparative neuroanatomy and of the fossil record demonstrate the influence of socio-ecological niches on the morphology of the cerebral cortex, but have led to oftentimes conflicting theories about its evolution. Here, we study the relationship between the shape of the cerebral cortex and the topography of its function. We establish a joint geometric representation of the cerebral cortices of ninety species of extant Euarchontoglires, including commonly used experimental model organisms. We show that variability in surface geometry relates to species’ ecology and behaviour, independent of overall brain size. Notably, ancestral shape reconstruction of the cortical surface and its change during evolution enables us to trace the evolutionary history of localised cortical expansions, modal segregation of brain function, and their association to behaviour and cognition. We find that individual cortical regions follow different sequences of area increase during evolutionary adaptations to dynamic socio-ecological niches. Anatomical correlates of this sequence of events are still observable in extant species, and relate to their current behaviour and ecology. We decompose the deep evolutionary history of the shape of the human cortical surface into spatially and temporally conscribed components with highly interpretable functional associations, highlighting the importance of considering the evolutionary history of cortical regions when studying their anatomy and function.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37574-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37574-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37574-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().