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Landscape of the Mind

As many ways as our brains are similar, there are subtle differences that make each unique. Consequently, it is difficult to know what within the human brain is normal and what is not. Neurologists may be well acquainted with the brain’s gross anatomy, but this absence of exactitude poses problems that have potential implications for researchers as well as for surgeons trying to navigate the corrugations of this most essential organ.

Now there is the world’s most comprehensive atlas of the brain, developed by a multidisciplinary team of UCLA researchers with colleagues in six other countries and at two U.S. universities. The atlas database comprises high-definition structural maps — from gross anatomy to microscopic detail — based on scans of the brains of some 7,000 individuals and referenced for age, race, gender, educational background, genetic composition and other distinguishing characteristics. Layered over the anatomical maps are brain functions such as memory, emotion, language and speech.

The need for such a tool is evident; within the past 12 months there have been more than 1.5 million visits to the consortium’s Web site and 43,000 downloads of highly detailed information. And the database — in some respects the equivalent of the human genome project — continues to grow as researchers plug in new information.