The Monkey Forebrain

Now we are looking at a coronal section of the forebrain of a chimpanzee.

What is the outer groove-like material? What are the inner structures? Does this look different from what you saw in the human forebrain? What is similar? What is different? Compare this with the human forebrain. Are there differences in the amount of cortex? If you remember, the midsagittal views of the five brains showed a relative decrease in cortex. Can you see that difference here in the section slide?

As with the human forebrain, this image is a good illustration of the cerebral cortex at the frontal lobe of the brain. The dark purple that looks like an outline is gray matter. The light purple inside the dark purple is white matter. You can also see the body of the corpus callosum, which is the structure connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. The white elliptical openings within the brain are ventricles, which are fluid-filled cavities that serve to cushion and protect the brain.

If you want to see more cross-sections of a chimpanzee brain, go to this site.

Where shall we go from here? Click on your browser's "back" button to return to the midsagittal view of the chimpanzee brain, or click on one of the buttons below to learn about these structures, to slice other brains, or to move on towards magnification.