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Whole Human Brain Mapped In 3D

Posted by Soulskill on from the brain-and-brain,-what-is-brain? dept.

ananyo writes "An international group of neuroscientists has sliced, imaged and analysed the brain of a 65-year-old woman to create the most detailed map yet of a human brain in its entirety. The atlas, called 'BigBrain,' shows the organization of neurons with microscopic precision, which could help to clarify or even redefine the structure of brain regions obtained from decades-old anatomical studies (abstract). The atlas was compiled from 7,400 brain slices, each thinner than a human hair. Imaging the sections by microscope took a combined 1,000 hours and generated 10 terabytes of data. Supercomputers in Canada and Germany churned away for years reconstructing a three-dimensional volume from the images, and correcting for tears and wrinkles in individual sheets of tissue."

6 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. So how is she? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

    After that procedure of mapping her brain, did she recover well? were there any side effects? When will we have the first interviews?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:So how is she? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      She seems ok, but she can't stop watching FOX for some reason

  2. Surprise! by Sperbels · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boy is she going to be surprised once she wakes up inside of a full brain emulation program.

    1. Re:Surprise! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thus begins the next Cylon revolution. Not from a transplanted girl dealing with the emotional stress of knowing that her fleshy self has died, but starting from an elderly lady who now has the army of combat drones to successfully force everyone 'off her lawn.'

  3. Re: How Complex Can It Be? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The dna is just the code. The brain represents the running state of that code following 65 years worth of exogenous and endogenous inputs.

  4. Re:Now we only have to figure out what it does by fabioalcor · · Score: 5, Funny

    We will not only understand how the human brain works, we will finally understand A WOMAN!