Hree-dimensional Probabilistic Maps of the Occipital Ulci of the Human Brain in Standardized Tereotaxic Space

bstract—Developments in functional neuroimaging in noral human subjects, such as functional magnetic resonance maging (fMRI), have permitted the mapping of several visual reas of the human brain and have already provided proviional identification of some of the visual areas that were first escribed in nonhuman primates. However, the lack of a etailed description of the sulcal patterns of the human ocipital lobe makes it difficult to establish clear relationships etween sulcal landmarks and identified visual areas with unctional neuroimaging. In the present study we used magetic resonance images to investigate the morphological ariation of the human occipital sulci in both the left and right emispheres of 40 normal adult human brains. We identified 1 occipital sulci, the parieto-occipital fissure and the temoro-occipital incisure, and their corresponding gray matter oxels were marked in the magnetic resonance volumes hich had been transformed into the Montreal Neurological nstitute standard proportional stereotaxic space. Probability aps were then constructed for each occipital sulcus. These robability maps provide a quantitative measure of the varibility of the occipital sulci in standard stereotaxic space and re a useful tool to identify the location of voxels of other agnetic resonance imaging images transformed in the ame stereotaxic space. © 2008 IBRO. Published by Elsevier td. All rights reserved.