Scientists working with Google just published the most detailed brain scans ever created
Monday, January 27, 2020 IST
Google and its partners at the Janelia Research Campus today released the largest, most detailed set of brain scans ever published. The project encompasses nearly one-third of the brain of a fruit fly and includes detailed mappings for more than 25 thousand neurons featuring more than 20 million synapses. The best part: it’s all been released open-source to the public. This is a great day for science.
These aren’t the kind of brain scans you might be thinking of. The scientists didn’t strap flies into tiny MRIs and zap them, they sliced their brains into 20-micron thick layers and then pulsed each layer with electrons. The resulting data was then used to produce a 3D image comprised of trillions of 3D pixels.
The reason they chose fruit flies is because, compared to previous subjects, they’re incredibly complex but still posses a small enough brain to make the endeavor manageable. Unlike worms or other lower animals, fruit flies have built-in navigation systems and exhibit high-level behavior functions such as courtship dances. They’re a lot like us, just on a much smaller scale.
The neural circuits responsible for behavior remain largely unknown. Previous efforts have reconstructed the complete circuits of small animals, with hundreds of neurons, and selected circuits for larger animals. Here we (the FlyEM project at Janelia and collaborators at Google) summarize new methods and present the complete circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of a much more complex animal, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
Stitching together millions of 3D images is a monumental task. Even with the aid of Google‘s AI, the scientists still spent hundreds of thousands of hours over more than two years tracing synapses in virtual reality to verify the veracity of the project.
The big idea here is that these images aren’t just random neurons in the flies‘ brains. These specific groupings are called “connectomes” according to the field of “connectomics.” These maps hypothetically work like wiring diagrams for brains. In theory, with the right map, we could trace behavioral activity.
James Vincent at The Verge describes the idea of “connectomics” in an article published today:
Connectomics has a mixed reputation in the science world. Advocates argue that it helps link physical parts of the brain to specific behaviors, which is a key goal in neuroscience. But critics note it has yet to produce any major breakthroughs, and they say that the painstaking work of mapping neurons is a drain on resources that might be better put to use elsewhere.
Luckily for organizations and individuals who can’t afford the resources it would take to build this particular project, Google and the scientists at the Janelia Research Campus have published the entire project open-source. Even better, the team painstakingly formatted the data, images, videos, and other information in a way that makes it easily accessible to everyday people and usable by world-class researchers.
Learn more about the project and check out all the amazing images and videos at the “Hemibrain” website
here.
Related Topics
Related News & Articles
It is said that when you are in love, you get weak in your knees and butterflies flutter inside your stomach. Well, this feeling is caused when you are in love du...
Recently posted . 707 views . 2 min read
Parents who fear their kids are spending too much time in front of screens now have more reason for concern.
Recently posted . 968 views . 1 min read
• Pangolins are believed to be one of the world's most trafficked mammals
• T...
Recently posted . 698 views . 3 min read
During the six-hour procedure, Musa Manzini, South African jazz musician, was kept awake to avoid paralysis or damage to the brain parts that control the voluntar...
Recently posted . 893 views . 1 min read
HIGHLIGHTS
*NASA scientists say a boundary separates our solar system from rest of the spac...
Recently posted . 763 views . 3 min read
Trending News & Articles
ALMATY: Hour upon hour, day upon day, Omir Bekali and other detainees in far western China's new indoctrination camps had to disavow the...
Recently posted . 209K views . 1 min read
If you have payed attention to the belly buttons of people on the beach or the members of your family, you have probably noticed that they have different shapes and...
Recently posted . 10K views . 2 min read
The Langya henipavirus has a place with a similar group of infections, including Nipah, which is known to kill up to 3/4 of people in extreme cases.
Recently posted . 5K views . 1 min read
Queen's death: The eldest of her four children, Charles, Prince of Wales, who at 73 was the oldest heir apparent in British history, became king immediately...
Recently posted . 5K views . 1 min read
More in Global
If sunglasses keep your eyes safe from harmful rays in the summer months, then they are twice as much needed in winters.
Rese...
Recently posted. 688 views . 3 min read
We must all have heard stories of our parents apparent struggles during their childhood when they were assigned household chores. While some of us would definitely ...
Recently posted. 890 views . 1 min read
'Apple's income is larger than Pakistan's budget', the panelist had been saying. At this point, the anchor interjected, 'Yes, I have heard tha...
Recently posted. 668 views . 1 min read
Recently posted . 1K views
Recently posted . 1K views
Recently posted . 2K views
Recently posted . 2K views
Recently posted . 3K views . 99 min read
Recently posted . 3K views . 140 min read
US President Donald Trump's plan to ban spouses of high-skill visa holders from working will likely push 100,000 people out of jobs and negatively affect the vi...
Recently posted. 798 views . 1 min read
Not all manufacturing businesses need heavy capital. Here's a list of 20 small business ideas you can work on with low investment.
...
Recently posted. 1K views . 1 min read