Occipital sulci of the human brain: variability and probability maps

The morphological variation of the sulci of the occipital region of the human brain was examined in both the left and the right hemispheres in 40 normal adult human brains on magnetic resonance images. We identified the occipital sulci and marked their corresponding gray matter voxels on the magnetic resonance images, which had been transformed into the Montreal Neurological Institute standard proportional stereotaxic space in order to construct probability maps. In the medial occipital region, the calcarine sulcus was the longest and most constant sulcus. We identified, in the inferior part of the medial occipital lobe, the lingual sulcus and the posterior collateral sulcus, and, in the superior part, the inferior and superior sagittal sulci of the cuneus. On the lateral surface of the occipital lobe, the lateral occipital, the lunate, and the transverse and inferior occipital sulci were identified. The parieto-occipital fissure and the temporo-occipital incisure were also identified on the lateral and medial surfaces. Finally, the patterns of the occipital sulci and gyri were examined in 20 post-mortem human hemispheres fixed in formalin. Probability maps of the occipital sulci were constructed, which provide a quantitative description of the variability of the sulci in standard stereotaxic space and may be used to identify the location of voxels in other magnetic resonance images transformed into the same streotaxic space. These maps are a useful tool in the study of functional activations related to visual processing.