Cytoarchitecture (
Greek ''
κύτος''= "cell" + ''
ἀρχιτεκτονική''= "architecture"), also known as cytoarchitectonics, is the study of the
cellular composition of the central nervous system's tissues under the microscope. Cytoarchitectonics is one of the ways to parse the brain, by obtaining sections of the brain using a
microtome
A microtome (from the Greek ''mikros'', meaning "small", and ''temnein'', meaning "to cut") is a cutting tool used to produce extremely thin slices of material known as ''sections''. Important in science, microtomes are used in microscopy, allow ...
and staining them with chemical agents which reveal where different
neurons are located.
The study of the parcellation of ''nerve fibers'' (primarily
axons) into layers forms the subject of myeloarchitectonics (
History of the cerebral cytoarchitecture
Defining cerebral cytoarchitecture began with the advent of histology—the science of slicing and staining brain slices for examination.Paul Flechsig
Paul Emil Flechsig (29 June 1847, Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony – 22 July 1929, Leipzig) was a German neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is mainly remembered today for his research of myelinogenesis.
Biography
Born in Zwickau, ...
was the first to present the cytoarchitecture of the human brain into 40 areas. Alfred Walter Campbell
Alfred Walter Campbell (18 January 1868 – 4 November 1937) was regarded as Australia's first neurology, neurologist.
Early life and education
Campbell was born at Cunningham Plains, near Harden, New South Wales. At age 18, he enrolled at the ...
then divided it into 14 areas.
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (1871–1937), a New South Wales native working in Cairo, identified 50 areas. Korbinian Brodmann worked on the brains of diverse mammalian species and developed a division of the cerebral cortex into 52 discrete areas (of which 44 in the hu