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Occipital sulci of the human brain: variability and morphometry

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Abstract

The external morphology of the occipital lobe was investigated in 15 human post-mortem brains (30 hemispheres) fixed in formalin. We identified, described and measured the lengths of nine major human occipital sulci and five variable ones, comparing both types between individuals and hemispheres. Morphological variability of human occipital sulci is related to interindividual and interhemispheric differences in their presence, origin, type, segmentation, intersection and length. The major occipital sulci, particularly the parieto-occipital, the calcarine, the inferior lateral occipital and the anterior occipital sulci, as well as two points of their intersections (cuneal point and intersection of the transverse occipital and superior occipital sulcus) may be used as reliable anatomical landmarks for the location of architectonically and functionally defined human visual areas (V1, V2, V3, V3A, V5/MT+, LO1 and LO2) and during less invasive neurosurgical procedures in the cases of focal lesions within the occipital lobe. Two lateral occipital sulci (inferior and superior) were defined on the lateral surface of the occipital lobe. The variable lunate sulcus was studied and combining our results with those from histological and functional imaging studies, we suggest that the lunate sulci of human and nonhuman primates are not homologous.

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Abbreviations

Acc1:

Accessory sulcus associated with the superior occipital sulcus

Acc2:

Accessory sulcus of the occipital pole

Acc3:

Accessory sulcus associated with the collateral sulcus

Acc4:

Accessory sulcus associated with the inferior lateral occipital sulcus

AOS:

Anterior occipital sulcus

CaS:

Calcarine sulcus

CaS-a:

Anterior part of the calcarine sulcus

CaS-m:

Middle part of the calcarine sulcus

CaS-p:

Posterior part of the calcarine sulcus (retrocalcarine sulcus)

CoS:

Collateral sulcus

ILOS:

Inferior lateral occipital sulcus

IOS:

Inferior occipital sulcus

IPS:

Intraparietal sulcus

ITS:

Inferior temporal sulcus

LiS:

Lingual sulcus

LOTS:

Lateral occipito-temporal sulcus

LuS:

Lunate sulcus

OpS:

Occipitopolar sulcus

PCaS:

Paracalcarine sulci

PI:

Pre-occipital incisure

POS:

Parieto-occipital sulcus

SLOS:

Superior lateral occipital sulcus

SOS:

Superior occipital sulcus

STS:

Superior temporal sulcus

TOS:

Transverse occipital sulcus

+:

Gyrus descendens

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grant No. 175030 of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 4/II, 11000, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

    Aleksandar Malikovic, Milan Milisavljevic & Slobodan Malobabic

  2. Department of Neurology, Mother and Child Health Institute of Serbia, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

    Biljana Vucetic

  3. Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Republic of Serbia

    Jovo Tosevski & Predrag Sazdanovic

  4. Faculty of Medicine, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Republic of Serbia

    Bojan Milojevic

Authors
  1. Aleksandar Malikovic
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  2. Biljana Vucetic
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  3. Milan Milisavljevic
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  4. Jovo Tosevski
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  5. Predrag Sazdanovic
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  6. Bojan Milojevic
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  7. Slobodan Malobabic
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Correspondence to Aleksandar Malikovic.

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Malikovic, A., Vucetic, B., Milisavljevic, M. et al. Occipital sulci of the human brain: variability and morphometry. Anat Sci Int 87, 61–70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-011-0118-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-011-0118-6

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