Three-dimensional interactive and stereotactic atlas of the cranial nerves and their nuclei correlated with surface neuroanatomy, vasculature and magnetic resonance imaging

Knowledge of the cranial nerves and their nuclei is critical in clinical practice, medical research and education. However to our best knowledge, a comprehensive source capturing full three-dimensional (3D) relationships of the cranial nerves along with surrounding neuroanatomy is not yet available. This work addresses the construction and validation of an atlas of the cranial nerves with their nuclei, correlated with surface neuroanatomy, vasculature, and magnetic resonance imaging. The atlas is interactive, stereotactic, 3D, detailed, fully parcellated, completely labeled, consistent in 3D, electronically dissectible, and scalable. A 3D geometrical model of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves with nuclei was created from an in vivo magnetic resonance scan exploiting in-house developed tools and methods, including tubular and iso-surface modeling, interactive editing, and mesh compression. This virtual model contains 439 objects with 121 different names, labeled based on Terminologia Anatomica. The model was integrated with a 3D atlas of structure, vasculature and tracts developed earlier, and correlated with sectional magnetic resonance anatomy. The whole model or its components can be interactively rotated, zoomed, panned, and add or removed with a simple few clicks. The studied material can be adaptively selected in an in-depth manner by using controls available in the user interface. This atlas is potentially useful for anatomy browsing, user self-testing, automatic student assessment, preparing materials, and localization in clinical neurology.