|
|
Butti, Camilla; Hof, Patrick R.
(detail)
|
| |
|
2010 |
The insular cortex: a comparative perspective.
Brain Structure and Function 214(5-6): 477-493. 10 figs. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-010-0264-y. June 2010.
–ABSTRACT: The human insular cortex is involved in a variety of viscerosensory, visceromotor, and interoceptive functions, and plays a role in complex processes such as emotions, music, and language. Across mammals, the insula has considerable morphologic variability. We review the structure and connectivity of the insula in laboratory animals (mouse, domestic cat, macaque monkey), and we present original data on the morphology and cytoarchitecture of insular cortex in less common species including a large carnivore (the Atlantic walrus, Odobenus rosmarus), two artiodactyls (the pigmy hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon liberiensis, and the Western bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus), two cetaceans (the beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, and the minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata), and a sirenian (the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris). The insula shows substantial variability in shape, extent, and gyral and sulcal patterns, as well as differences in laminar organization, cellular specialization, and structural association with the claustrum. Our observations reveal that the insular cortex is extremely variable among mammals. These differences could be related to the role exerted by specific and selective pressures on cortical structure during evolution. We conclude that it is not possible to identify a general model of organization for the mammalian insular cortex.
|
|
|
Butti, Camilla; Raghanti, Mary Ann; Sherwood, Chet C.; Hof, Patrick R.
(detail)
|
| |
|
2011 |
The neocortex of cetaceans: cytoarchitecture and comparison with other aquatic and terrestrial species.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1225: 47-58. 5 figs. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.05980.x. Apr. 2011.
–ABSTRACT: The evolutionary process of readaptation to the aquatic environment was accompanied by extreme anatomical and physiological changes in the brain. This review discusses cortical specializations in the three major lineages of marine mammals in comparison to related terrestrial and semiaquatic species. Different groups of marine mammals adopted a wide range of strategies to cope with the challenges of aquatic living. Cetaceans and hippopotamids possess a completely agranular neocortex in contrast to phocids and sirenians; vertical modules are observed in deep layers V and VI in manatees, cetaceans, phocids, and hippopotamids, but in different cortical areas; and clustering in layer II appears in the insular cortex of hippopotamids, phocids, and cetaceans. Finally, von Economo neurons are present in cetaceans, hippopotamids, sirenians, and some phocids, with specific, yet different, cortical distributions. The interpretation of the evolutionary and functional significance of such specializations, and their relationships with the degrees of adaptation to the aquatic environment and phylogeny, remain difficult to trace, at least until comprehensive data, including representative species from all of the major mammalian families, become available.
|
|
Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia 