Chapter 2
Human Brain Anatomy in 3D
Wieslaw L. Nowinski
2.1 Introduction
The animal central nervous system (CNS) has been evolved over the last 600 million
years, and the human CNS is the most complex living organ in the known universe.
The CNS has been extensively investigated, particularly over a few last centuries,
and a vast body of materials, resources, and data have been gathered in the print
form and more recently also in electronic format. Neuroanatomy is presented in
numerous textbooks [1–22], print brain atlases [23–51], and electronic brain atlases
[52–74]. Several textbooks combine text with atlases [14, 15, 43, 44], and some
provide neuroanatomy for various specialties including neurosurgery [1, 19, 22],
neuroradiology [8, 17, 20], neurology [2], and neuroscience [18].
The comprehension of neuroanatomy is crucial in any neurosurgical, neuroradiological, neuro-oncological, or neurological procedure. Therefore, CNS anatomy
has been intensively studied by generations of neuroanatomists, neuroscientists,
neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroradiologists, neurobiologists, psychologists, and
psychologists, among others, including Renaissance artists. These efforts resulted,
however, in neuroanatomy discrepancies, inconsistencies, and even controversies
among various communities in terms of parcellation (subdivision), demarcation,
grouping, terminology, and presentation.
This work differs from the existing neuroanatomy primers. Our overall objective
is to make the presentation and understanding of human brain anatomy quick and
easy. In order to achieve this objective:
W. L. Nowinski ()
John Paul II Center for Virtual Anatomy and Surgical Simulation, University of Cardinal Stefan
Wyszynski, Warsaw, Poland
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
e-mail: w.nowinski@uksw.edu.pl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
K. Miller (ed.), Biomechanics of the Brain, Biological and Medical Physics,
Biomedical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04996-6_2
5
Human Brain Anatomy in 3D
Wieslaw L. Nowinski
2.1 Introduction
The animal central nervous system (CNS) has been evolved over the last 600 million
years, and the human CNS is the most complex living organ in the known universe.
The CNS has been extensively investigated, particularly over a few last centuries,
and a vast body of materials, resources, and data have been gathered in the print
form and more recently also in electronic format. Neuroanatomy is presented in
numerous textbooks [1–22], print brain atlases [23–51], and electronic brain atlases
[52–74]. Several textbooks combine text with atlases [14, 15, 43, 44], and some
provide neuroanatomy for various specialties including neurosurgery [1, 19, 22],
neuroradiology [8, 17, 20], neurology [2], and neuroscience [18].
The comprehension of neuroanatomy is crucial in any neurosurgical, neuroradiological, neuro-oncological, or neurological procedure. Therefore, CNS anatomy
has been intensively studied by generations of neuroanatomists, neuroscientists,
neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroradiologists, neurobiologists, psychologists, and
psychologists, among others, including Renaissance artists. These efforts resulted,
however, in neuroanatomy discrepancies, inconsistencies, and even controversies
among various communities in terms of parcellation (subdivision), demarcation,
grouping, terminology, and presentation.
This work differs from the existing neuroanatomy primers. Our overall objective
is to make the presentation and understanding of human brain anatomy quick and
easy. In order to achieve this objective:
W. L. Nowinski ()
John Paul II Center for Virtual Anatomy and Surgical Simulation, University of Cardinal Stefan
Wyszynski, Warsaw, Poland
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
e-mail: w.nowinski@uksw.edu.pl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
K. Miller (ed.), Biomechanics of the Brain, Biological and Medical Physics,
Biomedical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04996-6_2
5