A Comparative Volumetric Analysis of the Prefrontal Cortex in Human and Baboon MRI

The proportion of prefrontal cortex in humans was compared to the proportion of prefrontal cortex in baboons (Papio anubis). Prefrontal cortex, dorsal prefrontal, orbital prefrontal cortex and total brain volumes were determined from magnetic resonance images of 20 healthy adult human females and 5 adult female baboons. Results showed that the proportion of prefrontal cortex volume relative to total brain volume in humans was significantly larger in humans than in baboons. The percentage of prefrontal cortex relative to total brain volume was 12.51 for humans and 10.68 for baboons. Similarly, the proportion of both dorsal and orbital prefrontal cortex volumes is larger in human brains. Relative to total brain volume, the percentages of dorsal and orbital prefrontal cortex was 8.22% and 4.29% respectively in humans and 7.21% and 3.47% in baboons. A regression analysis showed that the human prefrontal cortex was larger than would be predicted for a baboon of equal total brain volume. These results suggest that increased prefrontal lobe volume could underlie some of the differences between human and hominoid primates. On the other hand, the small magnitude of the difference might underlie similarities between the species and should encourage a search for other structures that are disproportionately larger in humans.