A myelo-architectonic method for the structural classification of cortical areas

We describe an automatic and reproducible method to analyze the histological design of the cerebral cortex as applied to brain sections stained to reveal myelinated fibers. The technique provides an evaluation of the distribution of myelination across the width of the cortical mantle in accordance with a model of its curvature and its intrinsic geometry. The profile lines along which the density of staining is measured are generated from the solution of a partial differential equation (PDE) that models the intermediate layers of the cortex. Cortical profiles are classified according to significant components that emerge from wavelet analysis. Intensity profiles belonging to each distinct class are normalized and averaged to produce area-specific templates of cortical myelo-architecture. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.