The purpose of this Columbia Brain Atlas is to increase the availability of scientific knowledge related to the distribution in human brain of receptor populations thought to be involved in psychiatric and neurologic disorders.
These receptor populations are the target of efforts to develop radiologands for use in studies employing positron emission tomography and SPECT.
We are in possession of a large and unique data base of postmortem human brain autoradiographic receptor studies that map in high resolution the level of binding in slide mounted section suitable for comparison with lower resolution images generated by in vivo scans using PET or SPECT. Investigators can use their own PET or SPECT scans to compare to our postmortem images and to our PET studies to determine the comparability of distribution as an anatomical validation of new ligands. This website is a product of the New York State Psychiatric Institute Neuroscience Department and supported by a grant from The Diane Goldberg Foundation.