A Formal Approach to the Translation of Cortical Maps

We introduce a formal method and its mathematical description for the translation of cortical maps. This method is based on three new classifications for cortical areas and projections between them and can easily be converted into algorithms for connectivity databases. As this approach works on logical, non-metric relations between parcellation schemes, in a minority of cases the translation leads to ambiguous results. However, we present several methods by which possible ambiguity can be minimized. Generally, this approach provides a framework for the translation of connectivity data in an objective and reproducible way and thus helps to overcome methodological difficulties of previous neuroanatomical databases.