Sections of the human brain

Virtual Microscopy: Cyto & Myelo Architecture

Virtual microscopy >

You may select the coronal sections by region or metric measures. Numbers indicate the position of the sections relative to the center anterior commissure. With the option to navigate by anatomical names of all major structures and subdivisions of the brain or by using the "virtual microscope" you get access to high resolution sections.

Please notice that you need a Flash plugin to use the "virtual microscope".

Midsagittal view in Stereotaxic Space

Placement of the 69 sections depicted in the atlas. The intercommisural line (ICL) passes through the center of the anterior and posterior commissure, respectively. The vertical line (VCA) passes through the center of the anterior commissure.

Lines indicate where the hemisphere was cut into 5 blocks (R1 - R5) before embedding.

Materials

The "Detailed Atlas of the Brain in Stereotaxic Space" is based on a brain from to the Vogt collection in Düsseldorf. This brain was selected for presentation in this atlas because numerous researchers have analyzed and reported on its structure in the last 60 years (see here).

Embedding: The brain was cut by O. Vogt into blocks oriented vertically to the intercommissural plane before its embedding in paraffin. The values of some linear measurements are given here.

Sectioning: Serial frontal sections of 20 µm thickness were prepared.

Staining: Most sections were stained with either cresyl violet or hematoxylin. Some additional sections remained unstained. Some of these unstained sections were used for immunohistochemistry (e.g., substance P; see Mai et al., 1986).

Estimates of Volume Changes: Volume changes due to formalin fixation are negligible as the brain volume at the fixation time corresponds to the values determined at autopsy (see Longerich, 1989). It is therefore reasonable that the dimensions of the formalin fixed brain represent the in vivo situation. Volumetric changes due to the histological preparation (dehydration, paraffin embedding, cutting, and mounting of the sections) were calculated from differences in linear dimensions between the fixed, unembedded hemisphere (scaled photographs) and the serially sectioned hemisphere. Lange and Thörner (1974) and Sievert (1992).

Photographic Plates and Corresponding Diagrams: The photographs and the diagrams always show the entire hemisphere and the metric dimensions of the sections. For the delineations in the diagrams we have always considered the results from the numerous cyto- and myeloarchitectonic studies that were previously performed on the represented brain and we have used as often as possible the original delineations provided by these earlier workers. Generally, the consistency of the drawings, section-to-section, was of higher importance than a precise correspondence between the photographs and the drawings.