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Chimpanzees are among the closest living relatives to humans and, as such, provide a crucial comparative model for investigating primate brain evolution. In recent years, human brain mapping has strongly benefited from enhanced computational models and image processing pipelines that could also improve data analyses in animals by using species-specific templates. In this study, we use structural MRI data from the National Chimpanzee Brain Resource (NCBR) to develop the chimpanzee brain reference template Juna.Chimp for spatial registration and the macro-anatomical brain parcellation Davi130 for standardized whole-brain analysis. Additionally, we introduce a ready-to-use image processing pipeline built upon the CAT12 toolbox in SPM12, implementing a standard human image preprocessing framework in chimpanzees. Applying this approach to data from 194 subjects, we find strong evidence for human-like age-related gray matter atrophy in multiple regions of the chimpanzee brain, as well as, a general rightward asymmetry in brain regions.

41Chimpanzees are among the closest living relatives to humans and, therefore, provide a 42 crucial comparative model for investigating primate brain evolution. In recent years, hu-43 man brain research has strongly benefited from enhanced computational models and im-44 age processing pipelines that could also improve data analyses in animals by using spe-45 cies-specific templates. In this study, we use MRI data from the National Chimpanzee 46Brain Resource (NCBR) to develop the chimpanzee brain template Juna.Chimp for spatial 47 registration and the novel macro-anatomical brain parcellation Davi130 for standardized 48 whole-brain analysis. Additionally, we introduce a ready-to-use complete image pro-49 cessing pipeline built upon the CAT12 toolbox in SPM12, implementing a standard human 50 image preprocessing framework in chimpanzees. Applying this approach to data from 178 51 subjects, we find strong evidence for age-related GM atrophy in multiple regions of the 52 chimpanzee brain, as well as, a human-like anterior-posterior pattern of hemispheric 53 asymmetry in medial chimpanzee brain regions. 54 55 57Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) along with bonobos (Pan paniscus) represent 58

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