Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images

Spectacular recent developments in neuroimaging technologies have vastly increased the amount of information about brain structure that can be obtained from tomographic scans. Prepared by a leading expert in advanced brain-imaging techniques, this unique atlas illustrates the wide range of neuroanatomical variation in a collection of normal human brains in three-dimensional computerized reconstructions of MR scans of living persons. It also provides 100 sections of a single brain so that the same structure presented in the section of one incidence can be identified in the section of another incidence that intersects it. Axial and coronal sections of another brain with a different overall configuration are included at the two most frequently used incidences so that readers will get a sense of the "correction" that they may need to apply to standard images. The atlas is based on a voxel-rendering technique developed in the author's laboratory that permits the reconstruction of the brain in three dimensions with about the same degree of precision in identifying major sulci and gyri that can be achieved at the autopsy table. The images used throughout the atlas have not been beautified; the contours have been left ragged for greater anatomical detail. Thirteen pages of color illustrations are also included.

The first of its kind, this atlas will be an essential tool for neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists and neuroscientists, as well as for medical and neuroscience students.

Hanna Damasio, M.D., is Professor of Neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, where she also directs the Laboratory for Human Neuroanatomy and Neuroimaging, and is Adjunct Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.

She is the internationally recognized author of numerous neuropsychological studies, and the developer of several new techniques for the investigation of normal and pathological anatomy using CT, MR, and PET.

Her previous book Lesion Analysis in Neuropsychology, also published by Oxford, was distinguished by the 1989 award for "most outstanding book in Bio- and Medical Sciences" from the Association of American Publishers. In 1992 she and her husband, Antonio R. Damasio, shared the Pessoa Prize, the highest distinction for intellectual achievement from their native Portugal.