NEUROANATOMY: Backwardness of human neuroanatomy

[spittman at prysm.com]

In a Commentary, "Backwardness of human neuroanatomy",  found in the Jan 14, 1993 issue of NATURE (Vol. 361 
pp.109-110),  Francis Crick and Edward Jones wrote, "To interpret the activity of living human brains, their neuroanatomy must 
be known in detail.  New techniques to do this are urgently needed, since most of the methods now used on monkeys cannot 
be used on humans." 

The main point of the article is that we have MRI and PET, but do we have a human cortical map equivalent of the detail of the 
macaque monkey cortical map? Have we developed the techniques necessary to carry out the task?

I would like to know if any progress has been made in this area (i.e. new techniques resolve human neuroanatomy in detail) 
since this Commentary was published almost 3 years ago.  Also, how does the technique of accurately quantifying neuron and 
glia cell densities and cell size from sectioned tissue  help construct a cortical map? 

Best Regards,

Stephen D. Pittman
Biomedical Engineer
spittman at prysm.com