The Brain Unveiled
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A new imaging method that offers an unprecedented view of complex neural structures could help explain the workings of the brain and shed light on neurological diseases.
Brain Connections
Diffusion spectrum imaging, developed by neuroscientist Van Wedeen at Massachusetts General Hospital, analyzes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in new ways, letting scientists map the nerve fibers that carry information between cells. These images, generated from a living human brain, show a reconstruction of the entire brain (above) and a subset of fibers (below). The red fibers in the middle and lower left of both images are part of the corpus callosum, which connects the two halves of the brain.
Images by Van Wedeen, Ruopeng Wang, Jeremy Schmahmann, and Guangping Dai of the MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, MA; Patric Hagmann of EPFL and CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Jon Kaas of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Mapping Diffusion
Neural fibers in the brain are too tiny to image directly, so scientists map them by measuring the diffusion of water molecules along their length. The scientists first break the MRI image into "voxels," or three-dimensional pixels, and calculate the speed at which water is moving through each voxel in every direction. Those data are represented here as peanut-shaped blobs. From each shape, the researchers can infer the most likely path of the various nerve fibers (red and blue lines) passing through that spot.
The result is a detailed diagram like that of the brain stem shown here.
Emotion Control
To study specific circuits in the brain, scientists can isolate a subset of fibers. The circuit shown below represents the core of the human limbic system, which plays a central role in emotion and memory. The thick green bundle enclosed by the red circle is the cingulum bundle, which connects different parts of the cortex. The C-shaped blue fibers to the right, called the uncinate fasciculus, connect the temporal lobe, which regulates language and memory, with the frontal lobe, an area involved in higher executive function and planning. Damage to this circuit can result in the inability to form new memories and the loss of emotional control.
A Long Road
The brain of an owl monkey is shown here at increasing levels of detail: the complete brain,
a subset of fibers,
and the isolated optic tract, which relays visual signals from the eyes to the visual cortex. In the image of the optic tract, the blue lines at lower right represent nerve fibers connecting the eyes to the lateral geniculate nucleus (marked by the white ball), a pea-size ball of neurons that acts as a relay station for visual information. Those signals are then sent to the visual cortex, at the back of the head, via the blue and purple fibers that arc across the brain.
Interactive Tools
The three tools below and on the next two pages show data gathered in different ways from a living human volunteer. In each image, the brain is viewed from the back at a three-quarter profile, with the volunteer's eyes pointed back and toward the right.
Interactive Tools
The three tools below and on the next two pages show data gathered in different ways from a living human volunteer. In each image, the brain is viewed from the back at a three-quarter profile, with the volunteer's eyes pointed back and toward the right.
Interactive Tools
The three tools below and on the next two pages show data gathered in different ways from a living human volunteer. In each image, the brain is viewed from the back at a three-quarter profile, with the volunteer's eyes pointed back and toward the right.
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