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Mechanisms of circumferential gyral convolution in primate brains

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Abstract

Mammalian cerebral cortices are characterized by elaborate convolutions. Radial convolutions exhibit homology across primate species and generally are easily identified in individuals of the same species. In contrast, circumferential convolutions vary across species as well as individuals of the same species. However, systematic study of circumferential convolution patterns is lacking. To address this issue, we utilized structural MRI (sMRI) and diffusion MRI (dMRI) data from primate brains. We quantified cortical thickness and circumferential convolutions on gyral banks in relation to axonal pathways and density along the gray matter/white matter boundaries. Based on these observations, we performed a series of computational simulations. Results demonstrated that the interplay of heterogeneous cortex growth and mechanical forces along axons plays a vital role in the regulation of circumferential convolutions. In contrast, gyral geometry controls the complexity of circumferential convolutions. These findings offer insight into the mystery of circumferential convolutions in primate brains.

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Acknowledgements

T Zhang was supported by NSFC 31500798, NSFC 31671005. T Liu was supported by NSF CAREER Award (IIS-1149260), NIH R01 DA-033393, NIH R01 AG-042599, NSF CBET-1302089, NSF BCS-143905 and NSF DBI-1564736. X Wang and M Razavi were supported by the University of Georgia Start-up research funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automation and Brain Decoding Research Center, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Tuo Zhang, Xiao Li & Lei Guo

  2. Department of Computer Science and Bioimaging Research Center, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Tuo Zhang, Hanbo Chen, Yujie Li & Tianming Liu

  3. College of Engineering, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Mir Jalil Razavi & Xianqiao Wang

  4. Biomedical Imaging Technology Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Longchuan Li & Xiaoping Hu

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  1. Tuo Zhang
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Correspondence to Tianming Liu or Xianqiao Wang.

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Action Editor: Abraham Zvi Snyder

Tuo Zhang and Mir Jalil Razavi contributed equally to this work.

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Zhang, T., Razavi, M.J., Chen, H. et al. Mechanisms of circumferential gyral convolution in primate brains. J Comput Neurosci 42, 217–229 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-017-0637-9

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