Understanding Brain Imaging, Mapping, and Modelling

Arthur Toga, M.D.
Professor of Neurology and Director of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Associate Director of the Division of Brain Mapping at UCLA

July 27, 2005
CLU - Richter Hall Ahmanson Science Building

No two brains are the same. All of this makes it difficult to know what is normal and what is not — making it challenging for doctors to differentiate between an aberration and just a normal variation on a brain scan. Dr. Arthur Toga, PhD, has embraced the challenge and is interested in the development of mathematical algorithms that define the structure and function of the human brain in health and disease. In his Neuro Imaging laboratory Dr. Toga has been working on the creation of three dimensional digital neuroanatomic and functional neuroanatomic atlases.

After nine years of study, a comprehensive brain atlas is nearing completion at UCLA as a joint project of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, and the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, headed by Dr.Toga. This is the world’s largest, most comprehensive, most high-tech brain atlas ever. The brain atlas will comprise high-definition structural maps — from gross anatomy to microscopic detail — of individual brains based on age, race, gender, educational background, genetic composition and other distinguishing characteristics. Layered over the anatomical maps will be brain functions such as memory, emotion, language and speech.

Arthur Toga, MD

Arthur W. Toga is a Professor of neurology, Director of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Associate Director of the Division of Brain Mapping at UCLA. He is also the founding Editor and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal NeuroImage. His interests are in brain mapping and neuro-imaging utilizing mathematical and modeling strategies to measure brain structure and function in health and disease. He has pioneered population based feature analysis and developed large subject databases of image data for a variety of cohorts. Dr. Toga published several books on brain mapping, and has been featured in local and national newspapers.