Journal article
Neuronal Populations in the Basolateral Nuclei of the Amygdala Are Differentially Increased in Humans Compared With Apes: A Stereological Study
Journal of comparative neurology (1911), Vol.520(13), pp.3035-3054
09/01/2012
DOI: 10.1002/cne.23118
PMCID: PMC4904735
PMID: 22473387
Abstract
In human and nonhuman primates, the amygdala is known to play critical roles in emotional and social behavior. Anatomically, individual amygdaloid nuclei are connected with many neural systems that are either differentially expanded or conserved over the course of primate evolution. To address amygdala evolution in humans and our closest living relatives, the apes, we used design-based stereological methods to obtain neuron counts for the amygdala and each of four major amygdaloid nuclei (the lateral, basal, accessory basal, and central nuclei) in humans, all great ape species, lesser apes, and one monkey species. Our goal was to determine whether there were significant differences in the number or percent of neurons distributed to individual nuclei among species. Additionally, regression analyses were performed on independent contrast data to determine whether any individual species deviated from allometric trends. There were two major findings. In humans, the lateral nucleus contained the highest number of neurons in the amygdala, whereas in apes the basal nucleus contained the highest number of neurons. Additionally, the human lateral nucleus contained 59% more neurons than predicted by allometric regressions on nonhuman primate data. Based on the largest sample ever analyzed in a comparative study of the hominoid amygdala, our findings suggest that an emphasis on the lateral nucleus is the main characteristic of amygdala specialization over the course of human evolution.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Neuronal Populations in the Basolateral Nuclei of the Amygdala Are Differentially Increased in Humans Compared With Apes: A Stereological Study
- Creators
- Nicole Barger - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Lisa Stefanacci - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Cynthia M Schumann - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Chet C Sherwood - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Jacopo Annese - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093John M Allman - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Joseph A Buckwalter - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Patrick R Hof - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093Katerina Semendeferi - Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of comparative neurology (1911), Vol.520(13), pp.3035-3054
- DOI
- 10.1002/cne.23118
- PMID
- 22473387
- PMCID
- PMC4904735
- NLM abbreviation
- J Comp Neurol
- ISSN
- 0021-9967
- eISSN
- 1096-9861
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/01/2012
- Academic Unit
- Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Orthopedics and Rehabilitation; Injury Prevention Research Center
- Record Identifier
- 9984001230202771
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