About the Terminologia NeuroAnatomica

About the TNA

This page is about the development of the TNA. It details the development history since initial start in 2012, as well as a presentation of the main aspects of its implementation.

The history of TNA was started in 2012 and the realization was essentially performed since 2015. An initial release was published in 2017, a initial acceptance was made at the IFAA general Assembly of 2019 and a final acceptance is expected in 2022.

During the development of TNA, it soon appeared that a modern terminology cannot be reduced to a simple list of terms. A database and adequate computer tools are necessary to support such an enterprise. The basic ideas behind the undergoing developments are presented in this section.

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The history of development

• The beginning

  In 2012, the President of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA), Bernard Moxham, initiated a new Working Group on Neuroanatomy for the Federative Programme for Anatomical Terminology (FIPAT). In the beginning, this Working Group was composed of Hans J. ten Donkelaar (The Netherlands) as coordinator and ... (click to see more)

• The TNA (2017 - 2019)

  The TNA is a recent revision of the terminology on the Central Nervous System (CNS; Systema nervosum centrale), the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS; Systema nervosum periphericum) and the Sense Organs (Organa sensuum). These were abstracted from the Terminologia Anatomica (1998) and the Terminologia Histologica (2008) and were extensively updated by the FIPAT Working Group Neuroanatomy, ... (click to see more)

• Further developments in the TNA

  To promote the TNA, an illustrated version, entitled An Illustrated Terminologia Neuroanatomica: A Concise Encyclopedia of Human Neuroanatomy (ten Donkelaar, Kachlik and Tubbs) was published 2018 (Springer, Cham) with contributions from ... (click to see more)

The new terminology

• Towards a digitized TNA

  Computerization of the TNA is a necessary task due to the size and complexity of the data. Manual handling is no more appropriate. Our goal is to be compatible with the essentials of database development in life sciences as recommended by the OBO Foundry (Smith et al. 2007). ... (click to see more)

• Partonomic lists

  Partonomic lists are the preferred representation of anatomical entities by anatomists. These lists mimics the traditional atlas of anatomy with figures, where one body part is represented with the details about its different subparts. However, the partonomic representation is formally complex and ... (click to see more)

• The white matter of CNS

  The white matter of the Central Nervous System is difficult to represent. This matter has been extensively studied and a new schema of representation has been developed. ... (click to see more)

• Universal model of the terminology

  A terminology must be independant of any language, but this is rarely verified. In order to reach this major goal, a Universal representation of terms has been designed. ... (click to see more)

• The terminology in five languages

  The actual version of the terminology is presented in 5 languages: Latin, English, French, Spanish and Russian. A rather strict discipline is followed in order to translate the terms in all languages in the respect of the source universal terms. However, it is well known that languages are versatile ... (click to see more)

• Implementation

  The terminology is implemented following the best rules about database and programming, in a modern environment able to support further developments on the long term. ... (click to see more)

• Future developments

  The foreseen future developments are the following: ... (click to see more)

Summary

• The whole TNA documentation

  Click to load the entire TNA documentation