Analyzing the neocortical fine-structure

Abstract

Cytoarchitectonic fields of the human neocortex are defined by characteristic variations in the composition of a general six-layer structure. It is commonly accepted that these fields correspond to functionally homogeneous entities. Diligent techniques were developed to characterize cytoarchitectonic fields by staining sections of post-mortem brains and subsequent statistical evaluation. Fields were found to show a considerable interindividual variability in extent and relation to macroscopic anatomical landmarks. With upcoming new high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) scanning protocols, it appears worthwile to examine the feasibility of characterizing the neocortical fine-structure from anatomical MR scans, thus, defining cytoarchitectonic fields by in-vivo techniques.