Katerina Semendeferi (PI), Eric Courchesne (Co-PI), Lisa Stefanacci (Co-PI)
Neural substrates of socio-emotional processing: from evolution and development to pathology.
The evolution of primate cognition is linked to living in complex social environments. The frontal lobe and amygdala are critical for normal socio-emotional functioning in humans and other primates, but their normal development and function are compromised in certain neurodevelopmental disorders, like autism. Our project targets the comparative neuroanatomy of the frontal lobe and amygdala in humans and great apes as well as in adult and developing normal and autistic human brains. Our working hypothesis is that during human evolution after the split from the great apes novel changes took place in brain organization underlying the capacity for complex socio-emotional behavior and that this part of the neuronal circuitry is disrupted in autism.
Our findings thus far support the hypothesis that selective reorganization took place in the human brain in both the frontal cortex and the amygdala. In two papers (see below) we report microstructural differences between humans and great apes in these two neural structures, specifically in the size of the lateral nucleus of the amygdala and the minicolumnar organization of Broca’s area in humans, but not apes. We are expanding our studies to examine more quantitative parameters, including neuron numbers,in additional subdivisions of these structures.
PROGRESS
Thanks to the support of the Kavli Institute we were able to purchase a custom made stage and a large microscope that can support large slides including entire sections of the human and ape brains. This is a unique setup that allows for stereological sampling and state of the art quantitative work using postmortem tissue.
Publications: Since last year we made considerable progress in our work including one published paper, one paper under review and one meeting presentation. Additional papers are in preparation that involve the comparative (human/ape) and developmental/pathological (control/autism) components of our project. The support received from KIBM is acknowledged in the papers below:
Barger, N., Stefanacci, L., Semendeferi, K. A comparative volumetric analysis of the amygdaloid
complex and basolateral division in the human and ape brain. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Published Online: 27 Jul 2007.
Natalie M Schenker, Daniel P Buxhoeveden, Katrin Amunts, Karl Zilles and Katerina Semendeferi A comparative quantitative analysis of cytoarchitectonics and minicolumnar organization in Broca's area in humans and great apes. Submitted.
Extramural funding applications: KIBM's support was instrumental in obtaining pilot data included in the following grant applications that received funding:
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Dissertation Improvement Grant of Nicole Barger (Semendeferi, PI) “Primate social behavior from an evolutionary perspective: a comparative analysis of the amygdaloid complex” 05/25/07; $22,000.
National Science Foundation, Dissertation Improvement Grant of Nicole Barger (Semendeferi, PI) “Primate social behavior from an evolutionary perspective: a comparative analysis of the amygdaloid complex” 06/01/07, $5,000.
Autism Speaks: Stereological Analysis of Neuron Numbers in Frontal Cortex from Age 3 Years to Adulthood in Autism (Courchesne, PI; Semendeferi, Co-PI). 11/1/07 - 10/31/10, $448,523.
Overall we are gratefull to KIBM for the support that enabled us to start and continue a promising and productive collaborative project.
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