Organization and visualization of brain tissue volume data

Following the conventions employed by the National Library of Medicine's Vi sible Human Project, our volume data is collected from serial cross section s of brain tissue taken at uniform 0.3-1 mm intervals. A solid model of bra in cortical areas and nuclei is reconstructed from the volume data. This mo del is decomposed into a hexahedral finite element model that organizes the neuronal forests and neuronal network data at the microstructure level. Th e volume database thus enables a 3D visualization of the human brain from i ts gross anatomy to an exploration of its microstructure. (C) 2001 Publishe d by Elsevier Science B.V.