Our thinking, perception, and ability to understand language are processed in the outermost layer of the brain. This area is known as the cerebral cortex. Researchers are still working to understand how the cerebral cortex is organized. Scientists have used a variety of techniques to map the brain's organization over the past century. However, these measures don't always reveal the same boundaries and borders in the brain's landscape. A team at Washington University in St. Louis wanted to get a better view of how the cortex is organized. This team, led by Dr. Matthew Glasser and Dr. David Van Essen, combined several measures to create one brain map. The team collected high quality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 130 female and 80 male participants.
The researchers measured both structural and functional aspects of the participants' brains. MRI scans revealed the thickness of the cortex and the amount of protective covering surrounding brain cells. Functional MRIs measured the participants' brain activity during a resting state. They also measured their brain activity while performing different tasks, such as listening to a story, looking at pictures, or doing math. The scientists used the data to identify brain regions based on specific roles and determine which regions correlated to specific activities.
The researchers combined the data from these multiple measures, focusing on where at least two measures changed together across the surface of the cortex. This approach mapped 180 distinct areas in the brain. Finally, the team verified that the brain map created from the averaged data set could be applied to new data.
"These new insights and tools should help to explain how our cortex evolved and the roles of its specialized areas in health and disease, and could eventually hold promise for unprecedented precision in brain surgery and clinical work-ups," says Dr. Bruce Cuthbert, acting director of NIH's National Institute of Mental Health.