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Differences in brain organization between humans and other primates are both a blessing and a curse for neuroscientists. Although they present us with welcome diversity in brain/behavior relationships to study, they impair the use of model species to understand our own brain. Regardless of one’s perspective, it is vital to map out and understand between-species differences in brain organization.

 

Comparative neuroscience traditionally employed very laborious techniques that are not feasible on a large scale or had to rely on gross anatomical data such as relative brain size. The advent of anatomical neuroimaging has changed this. In this talk, I will demonstrate our efforts to use measures of connectivity obtained using MRI to compare the organization of the human and non-human primate brain, focusing in particular on the macaque. I will show that, despite some reservations, we now have the tools to quantitatively compare brain organization quickly and reliably.