Highly consistent anatomical asymmetry in a small primate brain: left is always larger in the marmoset monkey
- 1Department of Physiology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University
- 2Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Evolution & Animal Models, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract
Although lateralisation of brain function is relatively common in animals, this is rarely accompanied by overt anatomical asymmetries. Morphological differences between the cerebral hemispheres are well established in Hominoids and other large primate species, but regarded as subtler, or inconsistent, in other primates. We demonstrate that the left hemisphere is reproducibly larger than the right hemisphere in one of the smallest primates, the marmoset. Among 208 adult marmosets the left hemisphere was on average 2.31% larger than the right (range: 0.22%- 4.37%). This asymmetry develops during early postnatal life, persists throughout adulthood, and is primarily due to differences in the volume of cortex associated with social cognition, including in the lateral and inferior temporal lobe areas and ventral premotor areas. These results challenge the notion that the morphological asymmetry between the hemispheres is linked to the evolution of large brains and progressive reduction in the relative connectivity between hemispheres.
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BibTeX
@article{mundinano2026highly,
title = {{Highly consistent anatomical asymmetry in a small primate brain: left is always larger in the marmoset monkey}},
author = {Inaki C. Mundinano and Nafiseh Atapour and Kun Jiang and Ranshikha Samandra and Cirong Liu and Farshad A. Mansouri and Marcello G. P. Rosa},
journal = {Communications Biology},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1038/s42003-026-10576-3},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10576-3},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Highly consistent anatomical asymmetry in a small primate brain: left is always larger in the marmoset monkey
AU - Inaki C. Mundinano
AU - Nafiseh Atapour
AU - Kun Jiang
AU - Ranshikha Samandra
AU - Cirong Liu
AU - Farshad A. Mansouri
AU - Marcello G. P. Rosa
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/01
JO - Communications Biology
DO - 10.1038/s42003-026-10576-3
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10576-3
AB - Although lateralisation of brain function is relatively common in animals, this is rarely accompanied by overt anatomical asymmetries. Morphological differences between the cerebral hemispheres are well established in Hominoids and other large primate species, but regarded as subtler, or inconsistent, in other primates. We demonstrate that the left hemisphere is reproducibly larger than the right hemisphere in one of the smallest primates, the marmoset. Among 208 adult marmosets the left hemisphere was on average 2.31% larger than the right (range: 0.22%- 4.37%). This asymmetry develops during early postnatal life, persists throughout adulthood, and is primarily due to differences in the volume of cortex associated with social cognition, including in the lateral and inferior temporal lobe areas and ventral premotor areas. These results challenge the notion that the morphological asymmetry between the hemispheres is linked to the evolution of large brains and progressive reduction in the relative connectivity between hemispheres.
SN - 2399-3642
ER -