Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rilling, James K
• Barks, Sarah K
• Parr, Lisa A
• Preuss, Todd M
• Faber, Tracy L
• Pagnoni, Giuseppe
• Bremner, J. Douglas
• Votaw, John R

Titel

comparison of resting-state brain activity in humans and chimpanzees

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2007-10, Vol.104 (43), p.17146-17151

Ort / Verlag

United States: National Academy of Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In humans, the wakeful resting condition is characterized by a default mode of brain function involving high levels of activity within a functionally connected network of brain regions. This network has recently been implicated in mental self-projection into the past, the future, or another individual's perspective. Here we use [¹⁸F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging to assess resting-state brain activity in our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, as a potential window onto their mental world and compare these results with those of a human sample. We find that, like humans, chimpanzees show high levels of activity within default mode areas, including medial prefrontal and medial parietal cortex. Chimpanzees differ from our human sample in showing higher levels of activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and lower levels of activity in left-sided cortical areas involved in language and conceptual processing in humans. Our results raise the possibility that the resting state of chimpanzees involves emotionally laden episodic memory retrieval and some level of mental self-projection, albeit in the absence of language and conceptual processing.