Scientists reveal advance in brain research once thought impossible sushiswap
Using a speck of mouse brain matter the size of a grain of sand, scientists have created the first precise, three-dimensional map of a mammal’s brain.
The map details the form, function and activity of 84,000 neurons, branched structures that fire off messages down a long arm, called an axon, and then through more than 500 million synapses, as well as 200,000 brain cells. The tiny piece of tissue contained 3.4 miles (5.4 kilometers) of neuronal wiring — nearly one and a half times the length of New York City’s Central Park.
The work is the culmination of almost a decade of research by 150 scientists at 22 institutions led by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Baylor College of Medicine and Princeton University.
“One byproduct of this whole project shows us just how incredibly beautiful the brain is,” said Dr. Forrest Collman, associate director of data and technology at the Allen Institute, in a video shared by the organization.
“Just looking at these neurons shows you their detail and scale in a way that makes you appreciate the brain with a sense of awe in the way that when you look up, you know, say, at a picture of a galaxy far, far away,” he added.
The astonishing map represents only 1/500 of the full volume of a mouse’s brain yet the team ended up with 1.6 petabytes of data — a staggering amount equivalent to 22 years of nonstop HD video, which the project, known as The Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) program, has already made publicly available.