In this way, the headlines touting BigBrain’s ability to work such magic as to “unlock the secrets of the mind” and that kind of thing may not to so accurate. What the project doesn’t do is tell us a whole lot about anything else – those “deeper” questions that we’re all dying understand. But the first brain has all the areas that you need.” She says her team probably won’t do more than a few brains in total, given the massive time commitment each requires.Īnd BigBrain will almost certainly have some major clinical implications, giving doctors a hand in neurosurgery and in placing electrodes during procedures like deep brain stimulation (DBS). And we’ve actually started second brain, to account for some of these. In terms of the person-to-person brain differences that are inevitable, Amunts says, “This is true. Before this, the data were so scattered, we haven’t been able to compare it very effectively.” Plus, the resolution from MRI scans is much poorer – a clumsy 1-mm thickness, which is “not good enough to address questions about microstructure,” adds Amunts. “It can help us address questions and data coming from neuroscience about things like receptor distribution, microanatomy. “We have a new reference brain,” says Amunts. She adds that this brain essentially becomes a new gold standard in the field. It provides precise anatomical measures, and lets us make comparisons to in vivo imaging.” “Researchers can take these images,” says Amunts, “and measure surfaces, thicknesses of cortical layers. It will also allow researchers to start making simulations, perhaps making it possible to “see” what happens in various disease states, say, in an Alzheimer’s- or Parkinson’s afflicted brain over time. So what information does brain mapping actually offer? It will certainly give us a better idea of where one region ends and the next begins, for a closer understanding of behavior-brain correspondence. The data take up a mind-boggling terabyte of space. The 3D image of the brain was formed by reconstructing the slices, making what is essentially a cell-by-cell computer image or “atlas” of the brain.
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