Researchers Create Complete Map Of The Human Brain

Researchers Create Complete Map Of The Human Brain23 Jun 2013-nbsp;-nbsp;-nbsp;

A group of researchers has managed to create the most detailed and complete map of the human brain to date.

BigBrain, the 3D digital reconstruction of the brain of a 65-year-old woman, reveals its details with microscopic precision.

The brain is made up of numerous networks of neurons that vary enormously in size, shape, and layers. Scientists can now see cerebral neuronal distribution with greater detail using this new model.

The finding, published in the journal Science, could drive further research into a wide range of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

BigBrain will serve as an atlas for neurosurgery and give researchers invaluable insight into how the brain processes emotion, cognition and language.

Lead author, Katrin Amunts, from the Research Centre Jülich, Germany, said that "it is a common basis for scientific discussions because everybody can work with this brain model."

The brain model "redefines traditional maps from the beginning of the 20th century," says Katrin.

Senior editor of the journal Science, Peter Stern, said that the scientists have pushed the limits of current technology.

With a microtome, scientists cut the woman's brain into tiny 20 micrometer-thick sections.

Courtesy: AMUNTS, ZILLES, EVANS ET AL.

In order to create the brain map, the scientists used 7,400 of the brain slices and assembled images of all of them to create a coherent three-dimensional volume of the brain. They used a high-resolution flatbed scanner to digitize the sections into a fully reconstructed high-resolution 3-D brain model.

According to Alan Evans, a professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the project was "a tour-de-force to assemble images of over 7400 individual histological sections, each with its own distortions, rips and tears, into a coherent 3-D volume."

The BigBrain provides an unparalleled resolution of brain components. Stern said that the "the spatial resolution the researchers achieved exceeds that of presently available reference brains by a factor of 50."

Amunts added that of course the team "would love to have spatial resolution going down to 1 micrometer," but currently "there are simply no computers at this moment which would be capable to process such data, to visualize this or to analyze it."

The team said that it has been "a dream for almost 20 years. The dream came true because of an interdisciplinary and intercontinental collaboration spanning from Europe to Canada and from neuroanatomy to supercomputing."

Even though the atlas map was created using only one person's brain it still provides important information to help interpret other brains, said David Van Essen, a neurobiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. "Getting a really accurate map in one individual is, I think, very valuable," he added.

The researchers hope to use this map to extract measurements of cortical thickness and further understand how neurodegenerative disorders develop.

One day Amunts and her team hope to develop a brain model at a resolution capable of capturing every single detail of cell morphology - which would require a resolution of 1 micron.



Last year, a team of British and American scientists created a complete statistical picture of the human brain's complex network. The simple mathematical model not only helped further understand healthy brains, but it also offered unique insights into schizophrenia and other disorders.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News TodayNot to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Reducing Emergency Department Use By Children By Extending Primary Care Office Hours

Once-Abandoned Cancer Drug Class Offers Renewed Hope For Breast And Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Special New Canary Seed Ideal For Gluten-Free Diets

Ibrutinib Shows Surprising Efficacy As Treatment For Chronic Leukemia, Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Exercise Can Turn Bad Fat Into Good Fat

Exercise Can Turn Bad Fat Into Good Fat23 Jun 2013-nbsp;-nbsp;-nbsp;

Researchers have found that exercise helps "bad" fat transform into a form of "good" fat that is more metabolically active.

The findings were presented at the American Diabetes Association's 73rd Scientific Sessions.

Humans have two types of fat:


Brown fat (the good fat) - this type of fat burns through calories to generate body heat.

White fat (the bad fat) - this fat develops as a result of storing excess calories, it is just an energy reserve.


People with more brown fat are generally slimmer and better able to stay warm when it is cold, whereas individuals who have high levels of white fat tend to live more sedentary lifestyles.

In this study, the researchers found that mice and men who underwent an intense exercise regime experienced a browning of their subcutaneous white adipose tissue (SCWAT).

The exercise regime had the men training on an exercise bicycle for 12 weeks and the mice running on an exercise wheel for 11 days.

Related article:
"There is more brown fat in leaner children compared to overweight or obese kids"


Compared to the original white fat caused by sedentary behavior, the new, browner fat, was much more metabolically active.

The researchers transplanted this trained browner fat into sedentary fat mice to see how the browner fat might affect the way their bodies use glucose. They found that after the transplant the mice had increased glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity for at least 3 months.

Kristin Stanford, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said:

"Our results showed that exercise doesn't just have beneficial effects on muscle, it also affects fat. It's clear that when fat gets trained, it becomes browner and more metabolically active. We think there are factors being released into the bloodstream from the healthier fat that are working on other tissues."

It is still uncertain whether browner fat is having the same impact on humans as there is currently no way to try out fat transplantation on human beings.

Senior investigator of one of the studies, Laurie Goodyear, PhD, and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said:

"We know that exercise is good for us. But what we're showing here is that fat changes dramatically in response to exercise training and is having good metabolic effects.
This is not the fat that's around your middle, which is bad fat and can lead to diabetes and other insulin resistant conditions. It's the fat that's under the skin, the subcutaneous fat that adapts in a way that appears to be having important metabolic effects."

In conclusion the study reveals that browner fat is associated with a better body composition, lower fat mass and increased glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity in mice.

Stanford says the findings provide even more motivation to go out and start exercising. Even if you don't lost weight, the study suggests that exercising will still train your fat to be more metabolically active and improve overall metabolism and health.

Dr. Jim Lyons, author of The Brown Fat Revolution, explains why brown fat is healthy.



Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News TodayNot to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Researchers Create Complete Map Of The Human Brain

Researchers Create Complete Map Of The Human Brain23 Jun 2013-nbsp;-nbsp;-nbsp;

A group of researchers has managed to create the most detailed and complete map of the human brain to date.

BigBrain, the 3D digital reconstruction of the brain of a 65-year-old woman, reveals its details with microscopic precision.

The brain is made up of numerous networks of neurons that vary enormously in size, shape, and layers. Scientists can now see cerebral neuronal distribution with greater detail using this new model.

The finding, published in the journal Science, could drive further research into a wide range of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

BigBrain will serve as an atlas for neurosurgery and give researchers invaluable insight into how the brain processes emotion, cognition and language.

Lead author, Katrin Amunts, from the Research Centre Jülich, Germany, said that "it is a common basis for scientific discussions because everybody can work with this brain model."

The brain model "redefines traditional maps from the beginning of the 20th century," says Katrin.

Senior editor of the journal Science, Peter Stern, said that the scientists have pushed the limits of current technology.

With a microtome, scientists cut the woman's brain into tiny 20 micrometer-thick sections.

Courtesy: AMUNTS, ZILLES, EVANS ET AL.

In order to create the brain map, the scientists used 7,400 of the brain slices and assembled images of all of them to create a coherent three-dimensional volume of the brain. They used a high-resolution flatbed scanner to digitize the sections into a fully reconstructed high-resolution 3-D brain model.

According to Alan Evans, a professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the project was "a tour-de-force to assemble images of over 7400 individual histological sections, each with its own distortions, rips and tears, into a coherent 3-D volume."

The BigBrain provides an unparalleled resolution of brain components. Stern said that the "the spatial resolution the researchers achieved exceeds that of presently available reference brains by a factor of 50."

Amunts added that of course the team "would love to have spatial resolution going down to 1 micrometer," but currently "there are simply no computers at this moment which would be capable to process such data, to visualize this or to analyze it."

The team said that it has been "a dream for almost 20 years. The dream came true because of an interdisciplinary and intercontinental collaboration spanning from Europe to Canada and from neuroanatomy to supercomputing."

Even though the atlas map was created using only one person's brain it still provides important information to help interpret other brains, said David Van Essen, a neurobiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. "Getting a really accurate map in one individual is, I think, very valuable," he added.

The researchers hope to use this map to extract measurements of cortical thickness and further understand how neurodegenerative disorders develop.

One day Amunts and her team hope to develop a brain model at a resolution capable of capturing every single detail of cell morphology - which would require a resolution of 1 micron.



Last year, a team of British and American scientists created a complete statistical picture of the human brain's complex network. The simple mathematical model not only helped further understand healthy brains, but it also offered unique insights into schizophrenia and other disorders.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News TodayNot to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today