Anatomy of nerve fiber bundles at micrometer-resolution in the vervet monkey visual system

  1. Hiromasa Takemura  Is a corresponding author
  2. Nicola Palomero-Gallagher  Is a corresponding author
  3. Markus Axer
  4. David Gräßel
  5. Matthew J Jorgensen
  6. Roger Woods
  7. Karl Zilles
  1. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan
  2. Research Centre Jülich, Germany
  3. Wake Forest School of Medicine, United States
  4. University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Abstract

Although the primate visual system has been extensively studied, detailed spatial organization of white matter fiber tracts carrying visual information between areas has not been fully established. This is mainly due to the large gap between tracer studies and diffusion-weighted MRI studies, which focus on specific axonal connections and macroscale organization of fiber tracts, respectively. Here we used 3D polarization light imaging (3D-PLI), which enables direct visualization of fiber tracts at micrometer resolution, to identify and visualize fiber tracts of the visual system, such as stratum sagittale, inferior longitudinal fascicle, vertical occipital fascicle, tapetum and dorsal occipital bundle in vervet monkey brains. Moreover, 3D-PLI data provide detailed information on cortical projections of these tracts, distinction between neighboring tracts, and novel short-range pathways. This work provides essential information for interpretation of functional and diffusion-weighted MRI data, as well as revision of wiring diagrams based upon observations in the vervet visual system.

Data availability

Original data is publicly available via the EBRAINS platform of the Human Brain Project (Axer et al., 2020; DOI: 10.25493/AFR3-KDK).

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hiromasa Takemura

    Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan
    For correspondence
    htakemur@nict.go.jp
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2096-2384
  2. Nicola Palomero-Gallagher

    Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine INM-1, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
    For correspondence
    n.palomero-gallagher@fz-juelich.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4463-8578
  3. Markus Axer

    Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine INM-1, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. David Gräßel

    Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine INM-1, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3228-8048
  5. Matthew J Jorgensen

    Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Roger Woods

    Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Departments of Neurology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Karl Zilles

    Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine INM-1, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP17H04684)

  • Hiromasa Takemura

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP15J00412)

  • Hiromasa Takemura

European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (785907 (HBP SGA2))

  • Markus Axer
  • Karl Zilles

National Institutes of Health (R01 MH092311)

  • Roger Woods

P40 grant (OD010965)

  • Matthew J Jorgensen

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Timothy Verstynen, Carnegie Mellon University, United States

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) used in this study were part of the Vervet Research Colony and were housed at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. Macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were obtained from Covance (Münster, Germany). Animals were colony-born, of known age and were mother-reared in species-typical social groups. The present study did not include experimental procedures with live animals. Brains were obtained when animals were sacrificed to reduce the size of the colony, where they were maintained in accordance with the guidelines of the Directive 2010/63/eu of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes or the Wake Forest Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee IACUC #A11-219. Euthanasia procedures conformed to the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals.

Version history

  1. Received: January 24, 2020
  2. Accepted: August 22, 2020
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: August 26, 2020 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: October 2, 2020 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2020, Takemura et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Hiromasa Takemura
  2. Nicola Palomero-Gallagher
  3. Markus Axer
  4. David Gräßel
  5. Matthew J Jorgensen
  6. Roger Woods
  7. Karl Zilles
(2020)
Anatomy of nerve fiber bundles at micrometer-resolution in the vervet monkey visual system
eLife 9:e55444.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55444

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55444

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