Meta-analysis of functional imaging studies using a geometric model of the cortical surface

Neuroimaging studies concerning the human cerebral cortex are increasingly numerous. The enormous variability of the human cortical anatomy is a major problem for the representation and comparison of these data and one of the main difficulties for the exploitation of neuroimaging data bases. We propose a simple geometric model that is able to capture the main traits of the cortical anatomy. The geometric model can be used as a unified coordinate system for representing neuroimaging data and as a common substrate for meta-analyses. We introduce the methods necessary to project neuroimaging results over the geometric model. We describe methods for handling data reported in Talairach coordinates (the most frequent way in which results are reported) and three-dimensional statistical maps (the most frequent form in which results are obtained).