Cited by 346Medical Image Segmentation TechniquesAnatomy and Medical TechnologyMedical and Biological Sciences

Three-dimensional statistical analysis of sulcal variability in the human brain

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Thompson, Paul M., Schwartz, Craig, Lin, Robert T., Khan, Aelia A., Toga, Arthur W.·1996·The Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

Morphometric variance of the human brain is qualitatively observable in surface features of the cortex. Statistical analysis of sulcal geometry will facilitate multisubject atlasing, neurosurgical studies, and multimodality brain mapping applications. This investigation describes the variability in location and geometry of five sulci surveyed in each hemisphere of six postmortem human brains placed within the Talairach stereotaxic grid. The sulci were modeled as complex internal surfaces in the brain. Heterogeneous profiles of three-dimensional (3D) variation were quantified locally within individual sulci. Whole human heads, sectioned at 50 micrometer, were digitally photographed and high-resolution 3D data volumes were reconstructed. The parieto-occipital sulcus, the anterior and posterior rami of the calcarine sulcus, the cingulate and marginal sulci, and the supracallosal sulcus were delineated manually on sagittally resampled sections. Sulcal outlines were reparameterized for surface comparisons. Statistics of 3D variation for arbitrary points on each surface were calculated locally from the standardized individual data. Additional measures of surface area, extent in three dimensions, surface curvature, and fractal dimension were used to characterize variations in sulcal geometry. Paralimbic sulci exhibited a greater degree of anterior-posterior variability than vertical variability. Occipital sulci displayed the reverse trend. Both trends were consistent with developmental growth patterns. Points on the occipital sulci displayed a profile of variability highly correlated with their 3D distance from the posterior commissure. Surface curvature was greater for the arched paralimbic sulci than for those bounding occipital gyri in each hemisphere. On the other hand, fractal dimension measures were remarkably similar for all sulci examined, and no significant hemispheric asymmetries were found for any of the selected spatial and geometric parameters. Implications of cortical morphometric variability for multisubject comparisons and brain mapping applications are discussed.

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Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.16-13-04261.1996

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  • Individual sulci are known to vary at least up to 1 cm.

    “This is especially true when the method is applied across different groups of subjects, although individual sulci are known to vary at least up to 1 cm (Sowell et al., 2002; Thompson et al., 1996).”

    From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Thompson et al., 1996

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Evans AC, Collins DL, Milner B (1992a) An MRI-based stereotactic brain atlas from 300 young normal subjects. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Symposium of the Society for Neuroscience, Vol 408, Anaheim, CA.
  2. Evans AC, Collins DL, Holmes CJ (1996) Computational approaches to quantifying human neuroanatomic variability. In: Brain mapping: the methods (Toga AW, Mazziotta JC, eds). New York: Academic, in press.
  3. Mega MS, Karaca TJ, Pouratain N, Chen S, Adamson CF, Schluender S, Toga AW (1995) Premortem-postmortem neuroimaging: a study of brain morphometric changes in man with MRI and cryomacrotome imaging. In: Proceedings of the 25th Symposium of the Society for Neuroscience, November 11-16, San Diego.
  4. Quinn B, Ambach K, Toga AW (1993) Towards a digital reconstruction human brain atlas. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Symposium of the Society for Neuroscience, Vol 18, p 968.
  5. Toga AW, Thompson PM, Payne BA (1996) Modeling morphometric changes of the brain during development. In: Developmental neuroim- aging: mapping the development of brain and behavior (Thatcher RW, Lyon GR, Rumsey J, Krasnegor N, eds). New York: Academic, in press.

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Authors
Thompson, P. M., Schwartz, C., Lin, R. T., Khan, A. A., & Toga, A. W.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Published
1996-07-01
Volume
16
Issue
13
Pages
4261-4274
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W2141487450
Cited by
346
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 9
FWCI
23.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (9322434)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • US-UK Fulbright Commission
  • National Institute of Mental Health (P20 MH/DA52176)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • U.S. National Library of Medicine (LM/MH05639)
  • National Center for Research Resources (RR05956)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Medical Image Segmentation Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Anatomy and Medical Technology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anatomy › Medical and Biological Sciences
Keywords
parieto-occipital sulcus, calcarine sulcus, cingulate sulcus, surface curvature, fractal dimension, hemispheric lateralization, cortical morphometry
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cadaver, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Neurological, Stereotaxic Techniques, Fractals

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