The human amygdala constitute a heterogeneous complex in the anterior temporal lobe. Ten structures have been recently identified in high-resolution images (1 µm in-plane) [Kedo et al. 2018], and registered to a common reference space with 1 mm isotropic resolution. Probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps have been computed, and are part of the openly available Julich-Brain atlas [Amunts et al....
The human brain can be subdivided into cytoarchitectonic areas, which are defined based on the spatial organization of neuronal cells, including their distribution, size, type, orientation, as well as their arrangement into distinct cortical layers and columns. Cytoarchitectonic areas are indicators of brain connectivity and function, making them an important building block of multi-modal...
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in ‘higher-order’ cognitive control and executive functions, including working memory, value encoding, attention, and decision making in the control of behavior. Pathological variations of the DLPFC are key findings in various disorders, such as vascular dementia, depression, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Previous...
Introduction
The BigBrain model offers a framework to extract quantitative measures of brain architecture at 20μm isotropic resolution. While the BigBrain model itself already enables the extraction of 3D histological features, higher resolution is necessary to map individual cells. In this project, we aimed to use 2D 1μm sections to characterize cellular distributions within selected...
Cytoarchitecture, which is a basic principle of brain microstructure used to define parcellations, may be related to the development of the cerebral cortex. In primary areas, the primary sulci predict the architectonic subdivisions [1], but the link is much less clear in associative areas. In this context, we first contribute a dedicated alignment method using DISCO+DARTEL [2] to register the...
Improving our understanding of brain structure and function requires multimodal imaging techniques that provide a detailed view of neuronal architecture. At the microscopic level, different histological stainings and optical methods provide complementary insights into the composition of cells and fibers. However, they typically cannot be applied to the same tissue sample, which makes the...
Many recent advances in artificial neural networks have been inspired by computations in the human brain. Even so, processes in modern neural networks often do not resemble the biological process it derives inspiration from. Differences from the human visual system, for instance, result in differing representations at higher levels and differing behaviors, such as inability to deal with...
The human brain and its disproportionately expanded neocortex have been considered crowning achievements of evolution. However, in recent years it has become appreciated that the entire cerebro-cerebellar system may be one of the primary driving factors behind the primate cognitive evolution (Smaers and Vanier, 2019). Here, we performed comparative analysis of cerebellar volume in the primate...
Introduction
The human metathalamus plays an important role in processing visual and auditory information. Understanding its layers and subdivisions is important to gain insights in its function as a subcortical relay station and its involvement in various pathologies. Yet, detailed histological references of the microanatomy in 3D-space are still missing. Here, we aim at providing whole...
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) represents a crucial organizational unit of the human prefrontal frontal cortex. It plays a key role in monitoring and controlling behavioral strategies and numerous cognitive processes associated with value encoding, working memory, attention, and decision-making. The DLPFC is a major research subject as alterations in this brain region are assumed...
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is cytoarchitecturally heterogenous. Portraying its organisation has challenged neuroanatomists for over a century (Brodmann, 1909). In particular, it is unclear how regional differences emerge from the patterns of specific cytoarchitectural features. We hypothesise a restricted set of large-scale axes can capture local differences in cytoarchitecture and help to...
The release of the Julich-Brain[1] has broadened the horizons of brain mapping, especially in the field of cytoarchitectonics. This meticulous work of 25 years proposes a 3D probabilistic atlas of areas distributed across the cortex and subcortical nuclei. Among these areas some have a special status: because the cytoarchitectonic mapping of these areas in the postmortem histological brains is...
Classical cytoarchitectonic maps of the macaque prefrontal cortex [1,2,3], based on qualitative analyses, differ in the number and extent of areas they display. Thus, the present research aims to characterize prefrontal areas based on a multi-modal approach based on quantitative cyto- and receptor architectonic analysis to create statistically testable parcellation [4] that can be transformed...
INTRODUCTION:
Defining the functional units of the human cortex is a key goal of neuroscience. For decades, significant efforts have been made to derive functionally meaningful parcellations based on a broad range of neuroanatomical and neuroimaging features 1. More recently, studies have derived low-dimensional, continuous representations of cortical organization (also referred to as...
