Fig. 6: Segregation of primary sensory cortical areas during evolution.

Mapping of species-specific cytoarchitectonic atlases allows for the determination of the functional topography of cortical regions and the relationship of the relative positioning of functional cortical areas and species ecology. a Spatial statistics indicate an evolutionary segregation of primary sensory cortical areas in the deep ancestral human lineage (green path), with a (b) significant positive relationship between the integration of sensory areas and evolutionary time (r(8) = 0.714, p = 0.002, shaded area indicates the 95% confidence interval of the linear model. See also Supplementary Data 6b). c Violin plots of the values for range parameters of the spatial statistics model for fossorial and non-fossorial rodents as well as social/non-social and diurnal/nocturnal primates, together with median values as well as upper and lower quartile + /− 1.5 interquartile range. Significance of group differences of the range parameter for primates (n = 58) and rodents (n = 28) was assessed using two-tailed t-tests and FDR-corrected for multiple comparisons. Results show that in primates, group size and diurnality are associated (q < 0.001, see Supplementary Data 6a) with a higher range parameter, indicating more wide-spread spatial correlation of measurements of areal sensory specialisation. In contrast, in rodents, fossoriality is associated with a lower range parameter (q < 0.05, Supplementary Data 6a), indicating more segregated sensory processing areas in a subterranean habitat.