The Human Brainnetome Atlas: A New Brain Atlas Based on Connectional Architecture

TLDR

Current human brain atlases are transitioning from ex vivo histology‑based printed atlases to digital maps, yet many still lack fine‑grained parcellations and connectivity information. The study aimed to design a connectivity‑based parcellation framework using noninvasive multimodal neuroimaging to map the entire human brain’s subdivisions and reveal its in vivo connectivity architecture. The authors employed multimodal neuroimaging to create a connectivity‑based parcellation of the whole brain and mapped the resulting regions to mental processes using the BrainMap database. The resulting Brainnetome Atlas comprises 210 cortical and 36 subcortical subregions, is cross‑validated, provides anatomical and functional connectivity data, serves as an objective, stable resource for exploring structure‑function relationships, and will be freely available online.

Abstract

The human brain atlases that allow correlating brain anatomy with psychological and cognitive functions are in transition from ex vivo histology-based printed atlases to digital brain maps providing multimodal in vivo information. Many current human brain atlases cover only specific structures, lack fine-grained parcellations, and fail to provide functionally important connectivity information. Using noninvasive multimodal neuroimaging techniques, we designed a connectivity-based parcellation framework that identifies the subdivisions of the entire human brain, revealing the in vivo connectivity architecture. The resulting human Brainnetome Atlas, with 210 cortical and 36 subcortical subregions, provides a fine-grained, cross-validated atlas and contains information on both anatomical and functional connections. Additionally, we further mapped the delineated structures to mental processes by reference to the BrainMap database. It thus provides an objective and stable starting point from which to explore the complex relationships between structure, connectivity, and function, and eventually improves understanding of how the human brain works. The human Brainnetome Atlas will be made freely available for download at http://atlas.brainnetome.org, so that whole brain parcellations, connections, and functional data will be readily available for researchers to use in their investigations into healthy and pathological states.