Piero della Francesca's projections and neuroimaging today.

摘要

In the neurosciences today, images of the brain and its constituent structures are typically presented in the triadic orthogonal format, comprising coronal, sagittal, and axial projections. Less commonly, rotated or tilted projections are used. But our forebears are easily forgotten, and here I suggestthat the contemporary way in which brain images are displayed can perhaps be traced to the very same projections developed 600 years ago when depicting the head. Moreover, the earliest known illustrations showing the use of these projections were produced neither by an architect nor by a scientist, but by a painter: the Italian Renaissance polymath, Piero della Francesca (c 1412-92). Piero also introduced other graphic techniques that underpin current brain images: the application of numbered points to identify coordinates on illustrations of the head and the use of sections, or slices.