[The sterologic method of determining the surface area of the mammalian neocortex]

A method for calculation of the square surface area of the cerebral cortex is proposed which represents a combination of the method of averaged reconstruction after a continuous series of histological sections and the stereological method of determination of the length of any curve disposed on the surface. A comparative analysis of the proposed method with curvometrical and stereological (after Hennig's formula) method used earlier for this purpose is made taking as an example the calculation of the neocortex square surface area of some mammals. The results of calculation of the surface by the proposed method were found to coincide with curvometrical data within the range of 5% while the data obtained by stereological method of determination of the absolute square surface area differ from curvometrical data by more than 22%. The proposed method is very convenient and allows considerable acceleration in obtaining results.