JOHNSON, J. I.; SUDHEIMER, K. D.; MARINO, L.; RILLING, J. K.; MURPHY, T. L.; FOBBS, A. J.: Atlas of The Brain of Bottle-Nose Dolphin Tursiops Truncatus Using Magnetic Resonance Images and Corresponding Stained Sections

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), structures can be analyzed in their precise quantitative spatial interrelationships, which is difficult to do after the distortions often accompanying histological processing. For these reasons, images of the brain of a bottle-nose dolphin Tursiops truncatus were scanned in the coronal plane at 136 antero-posterior levels. From these MRI scans, a 3-dimensional digital model was constructed using the programs VoxelView and VoxelMath (Vital Images, Inc.) This model, wherein details of internal and external morphology are represented in 3-dimensional space, was then resectioned in orthogonal planes to produce correlated series of virtual sections, 122 in the horizontal plane and 176 in the sagittal plane. These MRI sections are compared with corresponding stained sections for identification of neuroanatomical structures. Sections in all 3 planes display the sizes and positions of such structures as the corpus callosum, internal capsule, cerebral peduncles and ventricles, certain thalamic nuclear groups, caudate nucleus, putamen, ventral striatum, amygdala, pons, cerebellar cortex and white matter and peduncles, superior colliculus, large inferior colliculi and their brachia, inferior olive, and cerebral cortical sulci and gyri. This atlas can be viewed in movie format on the internet at http://brains.rad.msu.edu. Supported by NSF grants IBN 9814911, 9814912, 9812712.