Occipital White Matter Tracts in Human and Macaque

Hiromasa Takemura; Franco Pestilli; Kevin S Weiner; Georgios A Keliris; Sofia M Landi; Julia Sliwa; Frank Q Ye; Michael A Barnett; David A Leopold; Winrich A Freiwald; Nikos K Logothetis; Brian A Wandell

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx070

Occipital White Matter Tracts in Human and Macaque

Cereb Cortex. 2017 Jun 1;27(6):3346-3359. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx070.

Authors

Hiromasa Takemura^{1

2}, Franco Pestilli³, Kevin S Weiner⁴, Georgios A Keliris^{5

6}, Sofia M Landi⁷, Julia Sliwa⁷, Frank Q Ye⁸, Michael A Barnett⁴, David A Leopold⁸, Winrich A Freiwald⁷, Nikos K Logothetis⁵, Brian A Wandell⁴

Affiliations

¹ Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Osaka University, Suita-shi, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
² Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita-shi, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
³ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁵ Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, 72072 Tübingen, Germany.
⁶ Bio-Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk 2610, Belgium.
⁷ Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁸ Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.

Abstract

We compare several major white-matter tracts in human and macaque occipital lobe using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. The comparison suggests similarities but also significant differences in the tracts. There are several apparently homologous tracts in the 2 species, including the vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF), optic radiation, forceps major, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). There is one large human tract, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, with no corresponding fasciculus in macaque. We could identify the macaque VOF (mVOF), which has been little studied. Its position is consistent with classical invasive anatomical studies by Wernicke. VOF homology is supported by similarity of the endpoints in V3A and ventral V4 across species. The mVOF fibers intertwine with the dorsal segment of the ILF, but the human VOF appears to be lateral to the ILF. These similarities and differences between the occipital lobe tracts will be useful in establishing which circuitry in the macaque can serve as an accurate model for human visual cortex.

Keywords: comparative study; diffusion MRI; vertical occipital fasciculus; visual cortex; white matter.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Brain Mapping
Corpus Callosum / diagnostic imaging
Databases, Factual / statistics & numerical data
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Macaca mulatta
Male
Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / physiology*
Neural Pathways / diagnostic imaging
Neural Pathways / physiology*
Occipital Lobe / anatomy & histology
Occipital Lobe / diagnostic imaging*
Species Specificity
White Matter / diagnostic imaging*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding