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Postmortem Anatomy
Source: 1996;:169-190.
Author: Toga AW, Ambach KL, Quinn B, Shanker K, Schluender S
Abstract:
Recent advances in the digital technologies, functional neuroimaging, and brain mapping represent revolutionary approaches to basic and applied human brain neuroscience. These approaches to understanding and therapeutically manipulating the human brain are intrinsically three dimensional (3D) and require both whole brain and detailed structural concepts. Full exploitation of these new forms of data and the clinical potential of new neuroimaging techniques requires or indeed mandates the use of three-dimensional data processing and complex digital tools in order to capture, understand, and manipulate a neuroanatomical framework in three dimensions. In particualr, there is an increasingly urgent need to develop very high resolution digital atlases or maps of the human brain and head which can be used to parcellate and to complement lower resolution noninvasive modalities now utilized in both research and clinical neuroimaging. Ultimately, these digital maps or data spaces may be used as a framework that can provide the underpinning for a new form of comprehensive atlas capable of incorporating three-dimensional data obtained from metabolic, biochemical, or functional studies. This chapter discusses new approaches to both the digital capture and manipulation of large high resolution data spaces obtained from postmortem human brain and head speciments as well as early morphometric results and future applications of such data. This chapter covers new approaches to physically sampling and analyzing human brain structure, cryosectioning of brain specimens, the study of neural cytoarchitecture, chemoarchitectonics (the anatomy of neurochemistry, receptors, and metabolic charcteristics), digital reconstruction of structural bone and soft tissue characteriscs of the head, and the integrated use of magnetic resonance (MR)/computed tomographic (CT) imaging of postmortem material. Applications of this ongoing postmortem project for areas such as functional imaging of the normal brain, functional imaging of disease states including mental illness and neurologic disorders, and the anatomic pathophysiology of these illnesses and disorders are discussed. The ultimate goal of the research described in this chapter is to create a versatile basis for a digital 3D map of human brain structure by integrating recent developments in anatomic neuroimaging, computer science, and brain mapping. Ultimately, this can be used as a comprehensive anatomic reference for brain mapping with any modality. CONCLUSIONS: These experiments demonstrated the use of post-mortem anatomical volumes created from serial cryoplaned heads and brains. These data, in combination with histologically processed tissue from the specimen, provide a detailed high resolution reference for tomographically acquired images. The superior resolution and full color of the digitized postmortem anatomy greatly improves accuracy in identification and localization of anatomic structures. This approach, in combination with multimodality mapping techniques, will add to the growing databases being applied to the goal of mapping the human brain.
Source: 1996;:169-190.
Author: Toga AW, Ambach KL, Quinn B, Shanker K, Schluender S
Abstract:
Recent advances in the digital technologies, functional neuroimaging, and brain mapping represent revolutionary approaches to basic and applied human brain neuroscience. These approaches to understanding and therapeutically manipulating the human brain are intrinsically three dimensional (3D) and require both whole brain and detailed structural concepts. Full exploitation of these new forms of data and the clinical potential of new neuroimaging techniques requires or indeed mandates the use of three-dimensional data processing and complex digital tools in order to capture, understand, and manipulate a neuroanatomical framework in three dimensions. In particualr, there is an increasingly urgent need to develop very high resolution digital atlases or maps of the human brain and head which can be used to parcellate and to complement lower resolution noninvasive modalities now utilized in both research and clinical neuroimaging. Ultimately, these digital maps or data spaces may be used as a framework that can provide the underpinning for a new form of comprehensive atlas capable of incorporating three-dimensional data obtained from metabolic, biochemical, or functional studies. This chapter discusses new approaches to both the digital capture and manipulation of large high resolution data spaces obtained from postmortem human brain and head speciments as well as early morphometric results and future applications of such data. This chapter covers new approaches to physically sampling and analyzing human brain structure, cryosectioning of brain specimens, the study of neural cytoarchitecture, chemoarchitectonics (the anatomy of neurochemistry, receptors, and metabolic charcteristics), digital reconstruction of structural bone and soft tissue characteriscs of the head, and the integrated use of magnetic resonance (MR)/computed tomographic (CT) imaging of postmortem material. Applications of this ongoing postmortem project for areas such as functional imaging of the normal brain, functional imaging of disease states including mental illness and neurologic disorders, and the anatomic pathophysiology of these illnesses and disorders are discussed. The ultimate goal of the research described in this chapter is to create a versatile basis for a digital 3D map of human brain structure by integrating recent developments in anatomic neuroimaging, computer science, and brain mapping. Ultimately, this can be used as a comprehensive anatomic reference for brain mapping with any modality. CONCLUSIONS: These experiments demonstrated the use of post-mortem anatomical volumes created from serial cryoplaned heads and brains. These data, in combination with histologically processed tissue from the specimen, provide a detailed high resolution reference for tomographically acquired images. The superior resolution and full color of the digitized postmortem anatomy greatly improves accuracy in identification and localization of anatomic structures. This approach, in combination with multimodality mapping techniques, will add to the growing databases being applied to the goal of mapping the human brain.