The Brain Encyclopedia Atlas Project (BEAP): A Literature-Synthesis-Derived Functional Atlas of the Human Brain

The neuroscience literature contains thousands of studies linking cognitive, sensory, and motor functions to specific brain regions, yet this knowledge remains fragmented across experimental modalities, naming conventions, and spatial reference systems. Consequently, relating reported activations, lesions, or stimulation sites to prior findings often requires substantial manual synthesis. The Brain Encyclopedia Atlas Project (BEAP) was developed to address this challenge by providing a spatially grounded neuroinformatics framework for organizing literature-defined functional neuroanatomy.

BEAP is an expert-curated resource that aggregates and spatially indexes literature-defined cortical and subcortical regions within a common anatomical reference framework. The project identifies 106 neocortical fields and 18 cerebellar fields through analysis of published figures from 1,465 human studies using functional neuroimaging, intracranial electrophysiology, cortical stimulation and lesion mapping studies. These regions were manually aligned to standard anatomical templates and associated with parcels of the Human Connectome Project multimodal parcellation (MMP1). Inclusion criteria required convergent functional evidence, lesion support, and boundary-related contrasts. In addition, putative connectivity profiles were compiled from 475 non-human primate tract-tracing studies through comparison with established macaque atlases and homology-based mapping to human cortical territories. Beyond the neocortex, 340 allocortical, diencephalic, cerebellar, and brainstem nuclei were delineated through comparison with histological atlases and related anatomical studies.

The resource is publicly accessible through an interactive three-dimensional brain atlas linked directly to a curated encyclopedia of functional neuroanatomy. Each entry synthesizes functional descriptions, boundary-defining evidence, lesion associations, internal organization, alternative nomenclature, and putative connectivity annotations grounded in the primary literature. BEAP further supports research interoperability through downloadable volumetric and surface-based atlas files compatible with standard neuroimaging environments, including FSLeyes and FreeView.

By integrating heterogeneous literature-defined functional territories into a common spatial reference framework, BEAP provides a practical resource for contextualizing neuroimaging findings, supporting literature synthesis, and facilitating exploration of human functional neuroanatomy.