NOS News•today, 10:39
Researchers from Harvard University, in collaboration with Google, have created the most detailed 3D reconstruction of a part of the human brain ever. It is an important step in research into the structure of the brain and the connections between brain cells.
The results have been published in the scientific journal Science. The researchers three-dimensionally mapped a cubic millimeter of brain tissue from the temporal cortex, a part of the brain that plays an important role in memory formation.
Although a cubic millimeter may not seem like much, that bit alone contains a mind-boggling amount of data. “The word fragment is almost ironic in this context,” says Jeff Lichtman, one of the researchers. “A terabyte is huge for many people. A fragment of the human brain, even a tiny part, is worth thousands of terabytes.”
Mouse brain
The 3D map of this examined part of the brain contains about 57,000 brain cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels and 150 million synapses (where brain cells make contact with each other). That amounts to 1,400 terabytes of data, the compilers say. Their ultimate goal is to create a high-resolution 3D map of a mouse’s brain. That model will contain a thousand times more data than the part of the brain that has now been mapped three-dimensionally.
To reconstruct the cubic millimeter of cerebral cortex, a tiny fragment from the brain of an epilepsy patient who underwent surgery was used. That material was photographed with an electron microscope, resulting in thousands of images. The three-dimensional map was then compiled with the help of advanced AI algorithms from Google. Examples of the 3D display, divided into different themes, can be found here.
According to the researchers, the new brain mapping method will help research into the functioning of the human brain and brain disorders. When mapping the mouse brain, they first want to create a digital representation of the hippocampus. That area plays a role in memory and neurological disorders such as dementia.
