Brain Maps: Structure of the Rat Brain

Swanson LW

Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992.

Atlas and text on the brain of the laboratory rat (Rattus); English nomenclature; stereotaxic coordinates; outlines of structures down to cytoarchitectural level; detailed references to original sources of structure identification.

"This book is intended to present graphically an outline of mammalian brain structure, along with templates for preparing maps of the circuitry that underlies behavior. The result is two sets of maps or atlases, one summarizing the major features of brain development, and the other summarizing the major cell groups and fiber tracts that have been identified thus far in the adult rat brain. From this, a map based on the two atlases was designed to summarize the general disposition of major cell groups and fiber systems in the central nervous system....

"...[The atlas] is intended to illustrate the major groups of neurons that can be identified in Nissl preparations (the basic neuroanatomical method for showing divisions of the gray matter), along with the major fiber tracts (white matter) that can be observed under darkfield illumination of brain sections....

"The maps...are meant to serve three basic purposes; first, they are an attempt to synthesize graphically our current understanding of the gross morphology of the rat brain; second, they may be used as templates to present the results of experimental work in a systematic way; and third, they could be used as a starting point for computer graphics models of the brain" (Swanson, op. cit., p. 1).