Human Brain Atlas: For high-resolution functional and anatomical mapping

We present the new computerized Human Brain Atlas (HBA) for anatomical and functional mapping studies of the human brain. The HBA is based on many high-resolution magnetic resonance images of normal subjects and provides continuous updating of the mean shape and position of anatomical structures of the human brain. The structures are transformable by linear and nonlinear global and local transformations applied anywhere in 3-D pictures to fit the anatomical structures of individual brains, which, by reformatting, are transformed into a high-resolution standard anatomical format. The power of the HBA to reduce anatomical variations was evaluated on a randomized selection of anatomical landmarks in brains of 27 young normal male volunteers who were different from those on whom the standard brain was selected. The HBA, even when based only on standard brain surface and central structures, reduced interindividual anatomical variance to the level of the variance in structure position between the right and left hemisphere in individual brains.