Scientists, using a fragment of the mouse brain size of sand grain, created a super -refretional three -dimensional map of the mammal brain. This work is the culmination of almost a decade of research conducted by 150 experts.
The map contains detailed information on the shape, functions and activity of 84,000 neurons found in the mouse brain. These branched structures send information through over 500 million synapses to 200,000 brain cells. To create a 3D map, researchers took a small fragment of the mouse brain tissue. On its basis, a super -dimensional map of the mammal brain was developed. As CNN writes, this work is the result of almost a decade of research conducted by 150 scientists from 22 institutions headed by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Baylor College of Medicine and Princeton University.
“This three -dimensional map shows how incredibly beautiful the brain is,” said Dr. Forrest Collman from the Allen Institute for Brain Science. – Just looking at neurons shows their detail. Looking at them, the brain is appreciated, admiration for him. In some photos, neurons look like distant galaxy he added. The article on this subject was published on April 9 in Nature.
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What the research looked like
The map developed by researchers is only 1/500 of the full volume of the mouse's brain. The team obtained as much as 1.6 petabyte of data (Petabayt is a unit of memorial measures or data equal to 1024 terabytes) – a stunning amount corresponding to 22 years of uninterrupted HD video, which the project, known as the program “The Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks” (Microns), has just released in public.
To create a map, scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston used specialized microscopes to record brain activity in one cubic millimeter of the tissue located in the visual cortex of the laboratory mouse. This is the area responsible for creating an image. Initially, during research, the mouse was conscious and visually stimulated. When she ran, she watched 10-second scenes from various films, including “Matriks”. Recordings of extreme sports were also released. Then the rodent was killed. Scientists from the Allen Institute for Brain Science took the same cubic millimeter of the brain and cut it into over 28,000 layers. Each of them had 1/400 width of human hair. Then photos of each “slicer” were taken and a composition was created.
– It took us about 12 days and 12 nights […] – said Dr. Nuno Maçarico da Costa from the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Then the team from Princeton University, using artificial intelligence, traced the contours of each of the neurons and colored them. This is how the brain connections were created, i.e. a map of nerve connections in the brain. Konects shows how specific parts of the mouse brain are organized and offers insight into how different types of cells work together.
The researchers' goal is to map the entire brain of mice in the near future.
– At the moment it is not feasible, but I think that everyone has really clear ideas on how they could break these barriers. We hope that in three or four years we will be able to say that it is possible, said Collman in an interview with CNN. He added that the mapping of the human brain in a similar synaptic resolution would be a much more difficult undertaking. “The human brain is about 1500 times larger than the mouse's brain, which brings a whole range of technical and ethical barriers,” he said.