Diffusion MRI data, sulcal anatomy, and tractography for eight species from the Primate Brain Bank

Abstract

Large-scale comparative neuroscience requires data from many species and, ideally, at multiple levels of description. Here, we contribute to this endeavor by presenting diffusion and structural MRI data from eight primate species that have not or rarely been described in the literature. The selected samples from the Primate Brain Bank cover a prosimian, New and Old World monkeys, and a great ape. We present preliminary labelling of the cortical sulci and tractography of the optic radiation, dorsal part of the cingulum bundle, and dorsal parietal–frontal and ventral temporal-frontal longitudinal white matter tracts. Both dorsal and ventral association fiber systems could be observed in all samples, with the dorsal tracts occupying much less relative volume in the prosimian than in other species. We discuss the results in the context of known primate specializations and present hypotheses for further research. All data and results presented here are available online as a resource for the scientific community.

The Digital Brain Bank, an open access platform for post-mortem imaging datasets

“…The Digital Brain Zoo provides access to post-mortem imaging datasets in nonhuman species covering multiple taxonomic ranks ( Figure 2a ), including nonhuman primate species ( Bryant et al, 2021 ; Roumazeilles et al, 2020 ; Roumazeilles et al, 2021 ), Carnivora ( Grewal et al, 2020 ), Marsupials ( Berns and Ashwell, 2017 ), and Cetaceans ( Berns et al, 2015 ). As with other collections in the Digital Brain Bank , the Digital Brain Zoo currently focuses primarily on whole-brain diffusion MRI.…”

“…As with other collections in the Digital Brain Bank , the Digital Brain Zoo currently focuses primarily on whole-brain diffusion MRI. These datasets offer multiple pathways of investigation in comparative neuroanatomy, for example, through the examination of structural connections across brains ( Figure 2b ; Bryant et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, our developments in imaging large post-mortem samples have enabled us to acquire several high-quality post-mortem imaging datasets in species with brains that are too large to fit into specialized preclinical MRI systems, conventionally used to improve image quality in post-mortem MRI (see Discussion).…”

“…Limited Derived Outputs from users of Digital Brain Bank datasets will also be considered for data upload. The first release to the Digital Brain Bank includes data from multiple published projects covering a breadth of neuroimaging research, including whole-brain diffusion MRI in 14 nonhuman primate species ( Bryant et al, 2021 ; Roumazeilles et al, 2020 ; Roumazeilles et al, 2021 ), and one of the largest post-mortem whole-brain cohort imaging studies combining whole-brain MRI and microscopy in human neurodegeneration ( Pallebage-Gamarallage et al, 2018 ). In addition, we present a previously unpublished project providing one of the highest-resolution whole-brain human diffusion MRI datasets ever acquired (500 μm isotropic resolution).…”

Scaling Principles of White Matter Connectivity in the Human and Nonhuman Primate Brain

“…MRI acquisition protocols, demographics, and data sources are detailed in Table 1. Data were included from an ongoing cohort of MRI scans of brains of the Primate Brain Bank (primatebrainbank.org/data; technical details described in Bryant et al 2021), the National Chimpanzee Brain Resource (chimpanzeebrain.org), and from previous studies (Rilling and Insel 1999a;Allman et al 2010;Li et al 2013;Cabeen et al 2020). All in vivo data of the National Chimpanzee Brain Resource were acquired prior to the 2015 implementation of US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Institutes of Health regulations governing research with nonhuman primates.…”

Cortical Morphology and White Matter Tractography of Three Phylogenetically Distant Primates: Evidence for a Simian Elaboration

“…2). The recipes are based on the Xtract recipes for the macaque and previous literature (Bryant et al 2020(Bryant et al , 2021. As all the tracts reconstructed here are unilateral, all exclusion masks contain a sagittal plane at the midline to avoid streamlines crossing to the other hemisphere.…”