Jody Culham
Brain and Mind Institute
Department of Psychology
University of Western Ontario
http://www.fmri4newbies.com/
A Brief Intro to Cortical Neuroanatomy
Last Update: November 29, 2008
Last Course, Louvain, Belgium, 2008
14 Major Sulci
Main sulci are formed early in development
Fissures are really deep sulci
Typically continuous sulci
•Interhemispheric fissure
•Sylvian fissure
•Parieto-occipital fissure
•Collateral sulcus
•Central sulcus
•Calcarine Sulcus
Typically discontinuous sulci
•Superior frontal sulcus
•Inferior frontal sulcus
•Postcentral sulcus
•Intraparietal sulcus
•Superior temporal sulcus
•Inferior temporal sulcus
•Cingulate sulcus
•Precentral sulcus
Other minor sulci are much less reliable
Source: Ono, 1990
Interhemispheric Fissure
-hugely deep (down to corpus callosum)
-divides brain into 2 hemispheres
Sylvian Fissure
-hugely deep
-mostly horizontal
-insula (purple) is buried within it
-separates temporal lobe from parietal and frontal lobes
Sylvian Fissure
Parieto-occipital Fissure and Calcarine Sulcus
Parieto-occipital fissure (red)
-very deep
-often Y-shaped from sagittal view, X-shaped
in horizontal and coronal views
Calcarine sulcus (blue)
-contains V1
Cuneus (pink)
-visual areas on medial side above
calcarine (lower visual field)
Lingual gyrus (yellow)
-visual areas on medial side below
calcarine and above collateral sulcus
(upper visual field)
Collateral Sulcus
-divides lingual (yellow) and parahippocampal (green) gyri from fusiform gyrus (pink)
Cingulate Sulcus
-divides cingulate gyrus (turquoise) from precuneus (purple) and paracentral lobule (gold)
Central, Postcentral and Precentral Sulci
Central Sulcus (red)
-usually freestanding (no intersections)
-just anterior to ascending cingulate
Postcentral Sulcus (red)
-often in two parts (superior and inferior)
-often intersects with intraparietal sulcus
-marks posterior end of postcentral gyrus
(somatosensory strip, purple)
Precentral Sulcus (red)
-often in two parts (superior and inferior)
-intersects with superior frontal sulcus (Tjunction)
-marks anterior end of precentral gyrus (motor
strip, yellow)
Intraparietal Sulcus
-anterior end usually intersects with inferior postcentral (some texts call inferior postcentral the
ascending intraparietal sulcus)
-posterior end usually forms a T-junction with the transverse occipital sulcus (just posterior to the
parieto-occipital fissure)
-IPS divides the superior parietal lobule from the inferior parietal lobule (angular gyrus, gold, and
supramarginal gyrus, lime)
POF
Slice Views
inverted omega
= hand area of motor cortex
Superior and Inferior Temporal Sulci
Superior Temporal Sulcus (red)
-divides superior temporal gyrus (peach) from middle temporal gyrus (lime)
Inferior Temporal Sulcus (blue)
-not usually very continuous
-divides middle temporal gyrus from inferior temporal gyrus (lavender)
Superior and Inferior Frontal Sulci
Superior Frontal Sulcus (red)
-divides superior frontal gyrus (mocha) from middle frontal gyrus (pink)
Inferior Frontal Sulcus (blue)
-divides middle frontal gyrus from inferior frontal gyrus (gold)
orbital gyrus (green) and frontal pole (gray) also shown
Frontal Eye fields lie at this junction
Medial Frontal
-superior frontal gyrus continues on medial side
-frontal pole (gray) and orbital gyrus (green) also shown
Learning More Anatomy
Duvernoy, 1999, The Human Brain: Surface, Blood Supply, and Three-Dimensional
Sectional Anatomy
• beautiful pictures
• good schematic diagrams
Wanna get rich? Publish a brain atlas.
• clear anatomy
Sheesh, these are expensive!
• slices of real brain
• Springer, US$326
Ono, 1990, Atlas of the Cerebral Sulci
• great for showing intersubject variability
• gives probabilities of configurations and stats on sulci
• Theime, US$199
Damasio,1995, Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images
• good for showing sulci across wide range of slice planes
• really crappy reconstructions in first edition
• second edition available April 2005 with new images
• Oxford University Press, US$125
Tamraz & Comair, 2000, Atlas of Regional Anatomy of the Brain Using MRI with
Functional Correlations
• good overview
• Springer, US$203
Talairach & Tournoux, 1988. Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain
• just because it’s the standard doesn’t mean it’s good (see also PC vs. Mac, VHS vs.
betamax)
• Theime, US$240
EXTRA SLIDES
Anatomical and Functional Neuroanatomy
Images from Brain
Voyager Brain Tutor
(Freeware)
Cortical Neuroanatomy
Carpenter, 1991, Core Text of Neuroanatomy
Why is so little attention paid to
the cortex in traditional
neuroanatomy?
Brain Tutor
• Freeware interactive tutorial available from
– http://www.brainvoyager.com/
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
• I’m still working on the “areas” slides and they are admittedly on
the lame side, especially for temporal, frontal and subcortical
areas
• Suggestions/images welcome
Sensory Areas
Van Essen
Early Visual Areas
Category-Specific Visual Areas
objects
faces
Malach, 2002, TICS
places
•
•
–
–
Lateral Occipital (LO)
–
–
object-selective
objects > (faces & scenes)
Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)
•
place-selective
places > (objects and faces)
Fusiform Face Area (FFA)
–
–
face-selective
faces > (objects & scenes)
Social Stimuli
Extrastriate Body Area
Data from Downing, 2001, Science
Data from Astafiev et al., 2005, Nature Neuroscience
Allison, Puce & McCarthy, 2000, TICS
Motion-Selective Areas
Watson et al., 1993, Cerebral Cortex
MT+ or V5 motion complex
Sunaert et al., 1999, Exp Brain Res
Parietal Cortex
Simon et al., 2002, Neuron
Attention
Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000, JOCN
Frontal
Eye
Fields
Corbetta et al., 1998, PNAS
Parietal
Eye
Fields
Working Memory
Data: Duncan & Owen, 2000, TICS
Figure: Huettel, Song & McCarthy
• dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (near inferior frontal sulcus, IFS)
• ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (above Sylvian fissure, SF)
• anterior cingulate cortex
Language
Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000, JOCN
Memory Encoding
hippocampus
Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000, JOCN
Emotion
• amygdala
Motor Regions
Hand area of Motor Cortex
Supplementary Motor Area
Yousry et al, 1997,
Brain
Premotor Cortex
Picard & Strick, 2001, CONB