Introduction to the Research Topic on Standard Brain Atlases

Understanding neural function is based on knowledge about the wiring of the brain ( Ramon y Cajal, 1897 ). Neuroanatomy has made an enormous leap in recent years with the advent of confocal and multi-photon microscopy, powerful graphic computers, cheap digital storage material, and the internet. Several initiatives have been successfully created aiming to convert neuroanatomy into a quantitative science. Whole brains or parts of them are documented in digital data sets that are accessible via the internet and allow for an ever-increasing collection of well-organized and carefully documented anatomical data. Challenged by the need to integrate the rapidly growing data in neuroscience, digital brain atlases have become an important tool serving as databases for neural substrates with full 3D spatial information. The intension is to provide common frameworks into which neuroanatomical and physiological data can be registered and spatially related.