Atlas anatomy terminology and other anatomical notations

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Hello Eleftheria,

Thank you for reaching out to us regarding your question. There is a function within the interactive atlas viewer Jeremy is referring to that should allow you to determine the area of interest rather neatly. Here’s how it works:

  1. Open the Human Brain Atlas Guide: http://atlas.brain-map.org/atlas?atlas=265297125#atlas=265297125&plate=112360888&structure=4392&x=40320&y=46978.1328125&zoom=-7&resolution=124.49&z=3
  2. Engage the second dropdown seen in the upper right corner of the window (next to the 3-bar settings icon) and select “Cortex – Mod. Brodmann”. This will show an “underlay” of the BrainSpan Atlas which was specifically delineated indicate Brodmann Areas for comparison with the Human Brain Atlas (and vice versa).
  3. If you hover the cursor over the image in this mixed view, say over S1C (our acronym for primary somatosensory cortex, in bright orange), you will notice the acronym shown in the upper left of the interactive window will indicate “postcentral gyrus left” (except for the little bit on the on the bottom where it says “precentral gyrus, left”). This may be used to make judgements about functional and landmark areas
  4. You will also notice solid lines and faint lines which show where landmark areal regions (gyri designations) differ from Brodmann Areas. Obviously there are many places where this occurs.

Hopefully that will enable you to cross reference functional and landmark designations in human cerebral cortex.

If you are really more in need of just a Brodmann map, you can also just skip the overlay-comparison method above and just use the Cortex-Mod.Brodmann map on its own. To do that, engage the left dropdown, find “34 yrs, Whole Brain” and select “Cortex – Modified Brodmann”. Or follow this link: http://atlas.brain-map.org/atlas?atlas=265297126#atlas=265297126&plate=112360888&structure=10390&x=40320&y=46978.1328125&zoom=-7&resolution=124.49&z=3

As “Area 3a: primary somatosensory cortex” was used as an example on a broader question about atlas usage, I won’t go into answering that here. Please write back if you have any need to discuss the anatomical analysis of this specifically.

Hope that helps,

Josh

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