Background: Knowledge regarding the hypothalamic nuclei is essential for understanding neuroanatomy and has substantial clinical relevance.
Objective: The aim was to contribute to elucidate the complex hypothalamic architecture for research and provide an anatomical basis for clinical brain operation.
Methods: In this research, high-resolution and true-color sectioned images from Visible Korean were employed for hypothalamic nuclei and neighboring structures surface modeling, and a high-resolution three-dimensional atlas of the hypothalamus was created.
Results: Surface models of 26 structures including the hypothalamic nuclei and its neighboring structures were produced, which contained 5 anterior hypothalamic areas' nuclei, 4 intermediate hypothalamic areas' nuclei, 3 lateral hypothalamic areas' nuclei, and 2 posterior hypothalamic areas' nuclei, as well as 12 hypothalamic neighboring structures.
Conclusions: The study evaluated the topographical anatomy of the hypothalamic nuclei and its neighboring structures based on true-color and highresolution sectioned images of Visible Korean.
Keywords: Hypothalamus; Visible Korean; sectioned image; three-dimensional model; true-color.