In the first study, Hani Freeman, BA, Claudio Catalupo, PhD (also with Georgia State University), and William Hopkins, PhD (also with Berry College), took magnetic resonance images 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 amygdalas 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. This fact, especially if studied in the context of functional behaviors that reflect asymmetries, may help scientists get a better fix on the evolution of the limbic system in all primates, including humans.
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 beha
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Contact: Pam Willenz
public.affairs@apa.org
202-336-5700
American Psychological Association
5-Dec-2004