Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Human Connectome, A Map of Brain Connectivity

A connectome is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain. The production and study of connectomes, known as connectomics, may range in scale from a detailed map of the full set of neurons and synapses within part or all of the nervous system of an organism to a macro scale description of the functional and structural connectivity between all cortical areas and subcortical structures. The term "connectome" is used primarily in scientific efforts to capture, map, and understand the organization of neural interactions within the brain. One such effort is the Human Connectome Project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, whose focus is to build a network map of the human brain in healthy, living adults. Another was the successful reconstruction of all neural and synaptic connections in C. elegans (White et al., 1986).

via wiki

Researchers at EPFL Signal Processing Laboratory 5 (http://lts5www.epfl.ch/) in collaboration with the University of Lausanne and partners in the US have studied how the brain makes connections between its different parts.







New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram--including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection--of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia. ... Only one organism's wiring diagram currently exists: that of the microscopic worm C. elegans. Despite containing a mere 302 neurons, the C. elegans mapping effort took more than a decade to complete, in the 1970s. It has been an invaluable research resource and earned its creators a Nobel Prize.

via TechReview (2007)

"In the cerebral cortex, it's believed that one neuron is connected to 10,000 others," said Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at MIT. Now Seung is heading a collaborative effort to speed up the mapping of the wiring diagrams, known as connectomes. He and other researchers want to train computers to imitate human tracing, so that computers can eventually create their own neuron-tracing algorithms and tackle any image of neuronal wiring,  no matter how tangled or complex.

via LiveScience (2010)

An unprecedented five-year, $30-million effort to generate a first-of-its kind map of all the major circuits in the human brain is being led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR).Thirty-three researchers at nine institutions will contribute to the Human Connectome Project (http://www.humanconnectome.org/consortia). Using powerful, custom-built brain scanners, a supercomputer, new brain analysis techniques and other state-of-the-art resources, they will trace the anatomical 'wires' that interconnect thousands of different regions of the human brain's gray matter. ... The project is funded by 16 components of the National Institutes of Health via its Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/).

via MedicalDaily (Sept 2010)

Once you know exactly how you are wired, could you upload your mind into a super computer?

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