Brain atlases--a new research tool

Conventional brain atlases are collections of micrographs or schematic drawings of brain sections from one or a few brains in which anatomical structures are identified, for example, nuclei, cortical areas and fibre tracts. Conventional brain maps have now been replaced with modern computer-based brain atlases. The structures in computerized atlases are deformable so as to fit the sizes and shapes of individual brains, and transform three-dimensional reconstructions or images of brains into a standard brain format. In order to make generalizations about localization of function and structure at both the macroscopical and microscopical level computerized brain atlases are needed. Computerized brain atlases are also used to compensate for the shrinkage and distortions during sectioning and embedding of post-mortem brains, to study structural-functional relationships in the human brain at both the macroscopical and microscopical level, and variations in gross morphology and microstructure of the human brain, and for establishing a three-dimensional human-brain database for all of the above and also for topographically defined data from the literature.