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Centenary of Brodmann's map — conception and fate

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 11, pages 139–145 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Rarely in the history of neuroscience has a single illustration been as influential as the cytoarchitectonic map of the human brain published by Korbinian Brodmann in his monograph from 1909. The map presents the segregation of the cerebral cortex into 43 areas, as visible in cell body-stained histological sections. More importantly, Brodmann provided a comparative neuroanatomical approach and discussed ontogenetic and pathological aspects as well as structural–functional correlations. One hundred years later, a large number of neuroscientists still use Brodmann's map for localizing neuroimaging data obtained in the living human brain.

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Figure 1: Korbinian Brodmann and his work.
Figure 2: Lateral views of the cortical maps of Campbell, Smith, von Economo and Koskinas, Sarkisov, Bailey and von Bonin, and Brodmann.
Figure 3: Probability maps of the human cortex based on quantitative cytoarchitecture and statistical tests for the localization of borders between areas.
Figure 4: Cortical maps based on the quantitative in vitro receptor autoradiography of the regional and laminar distribution of neurotransmitter receptors in the human and macaque brain.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the Initiative and Network Fund of the Helmholtz Association within the Helmholtz Alliance on Systems Biology (Human Brain Model project to K.Z.). Further support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (AM 118/1-2, K.A.) and the German Ministry for Education and Research (01GW0613, 01GW0623, 01GW0771 to K.A.) is acknowledged. We thank our teams in Düsseldorf and Jülich, in particular S. Caspers, M. Falk, S. Eickhoff, H. Mohlberg, P. Morosan, N. Palomero-Gallagher and A. Schleicher.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karl Zilles is at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM2), Research Center Jlich, Leo-Brandt Strae, 52428 Jlich, Germany, and at the C. & O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, Heinrich Heine University Dsseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225 Dsseldorf, Germany.,

    Karl Zilles

  2. and at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Katrin Amunts is at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Center Jülich, Leo-Brandt Straβe, 52428 Jölich, Germany, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.,

    Katrin Amunts

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Correspondence to Katrin Amunts.

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Supplementary information S1 (fig)

Interspecies comparison of cytoarchitectonic brain maps. (PDF 1342 kb)

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Zilles, K., Amunts, K. Centenary of Brodmann's map — conception and fate. Nat Rev Neurosci 11, 139–145 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2776

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