This reconstruction shows more than 1,000 of the 120,000 neurons in the brain recorded in the MICRONS project described below. Each reconstructed neuron is represented in a unique color, and a subset of them are displayed with different luminescence to highlight that the dataset includes functional recordings from some cells. (Image credit: Allen Institute)
The mammalian brain is a complex network of billions of cells connected by trillions of nodes that neuroscientists have yet to fully understand. Scientists have now mapped the many brain cells and their connections in a single region of the mouse brain that takes up just 1 cubic millimeter — about the size of a grain of sand.
“Even though a millimeter seems tiny, there are miles of wires inside that millimeter,” Jacob Reimer, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, told Live Science. Reimer is the senior author of one of 10 new studies in which scientists detail the process by which this remarkable brain map was created.
Reimer is part of the MICrONS consortium, which brings together more than 150 researchers from institutions across the United States. In a series of papers published in Nature on April 9, the scientists not only presented a 3D neural map known as a “connectome,” but also explained how they used the dataset to study brain function.
You may like
Sourse: www.livescience.com
