Brain intrinsic connection patterns underlying tool processing in human adults are present in neonates and not in macaques
Haojie Wen,
Ting Xu,
Xiaoying Wang,
Xi Yu,
Yanchao Bi
Affiliations
Haojie Wen
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Ting Xu
Center for the Developing Brain, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY 10022, USA
Xiaoying Wang
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xi Yu
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Yanchao Bi
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing 102206, China; Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Tool understanding and use are supported by a dedicated left-lateralized, intrinsically connected network in the human adult brain. To examine this network's phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins, we compared resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) among regions subserving tool processing in human adults to rsFC among homologous regions in human neonates and macaque monkeys (adolescent and mature). These homologous regions formed an intrinsic network in human neonates, but not in macaques. Network topological patterns were highly similar between human adults and neonates, and significantly less so between humans and macaques. The premotor-parietal rsFC had most significant contribution to the formation of the neonatal tool network. These results suggest that an intrinsic brain network potentially supporting tool processing exists in the human brain prior to individual tool use experiences, and that the premotor-parietal functional connection in particular offers a brain basis for complex tool behaviors specific to humans.
