High-resolution intersubject averaging and a coordinate system for the cortical surface

✍ Scribed by Bruce Fischl; Martin I. Sereno; Roger B.H. Tootell; Anders M. Dale

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 697 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1065-9471
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0193(1999)8:4<272::aid-hbm10>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

The neurons of the human cerebral cortex are arranged in a highly folded sheet, with the majority of the cortical surface area buried in folds. Cortical maps are typically arranged with a topography oriented parallel to the cortical surface. Despite this unambiguous sheetlike geometry, the most commonly used coordinate systems for localizing cortical features are based on 3-D stereotaxic coordinates rather than on position relative to the 2-D cortical sheet. In order to address the need for a more natural surface-based coordinate system for the cortex, we have developed a means for generating an average folding pattern across a large number of individual subjects as a function on the unit sphere and of nonrigidly aligning each individual with the average. This establishes a spherical surface-based coordinate system that is adapted to the folding pattern of each individual subject, allowing for much higher localization accuracy of structural and functional features of the human brain.