The segmentation of the human brain; a message to the neuroimaging community from an adjacent domain of the neurosciences

Morphological and genoarchitectonic studies have conclusively shown that the human brain (and that of all vertebrates) is segmented i. e. is fundamentally composed of a number of rostrocaudally arranged brain segments or neuromeres. However in the current neuroimaging literature the term segmentation, derived initially from computer graphics technology, is used instead to indicate the neuroanatomical parcellation or subdivision of neural structures in the fully formed brain, especially the cortex. The neuroimaging community should be aware of the prior use of this term in the parallel discipline of neuroembryology, and should use a different one e.g. parcellation to avoid any confusion between the two growing disciplines.