In a world first, Harvard biologists worked with Google to diagram a cubic millimeter of human cerebral cortex at the subcellular level, paving the way for the next generation of brain science.

In 2014, a woman undergoing surgery for epilepsy had a tiny chunk of her cerebral cortex removed. This cubic millimeter of tissue has allowed Harvard and Google researchers to produce the most detailed wiring diagram of the human brain that the world has ever seen.

Biologists and machine-learning experts spent 10 years building an interactive map of the brain tissue, which contains approximately 57,000 cells and 150 million synapses. It shows cells that wrap around themselves, pairs of cells that seem mirrored, and egg-shaped “objects” that, according to the research, defy categorization. This mind-blowingly complex diagram is expected to help drive forward scientific research, from understanding human neural circuits to potential treatments for disorders.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    4 months ago

    This cubic millimeter of tissue has allowed Harvard and Google researchers to produce the most detailed wiring diagram of the human brain that the world has ever seen. […] This helped researchers to identify the brain’s six cortical layers and white matter.

    I thought the human cerebral cortex was two to four millimeters thick—how does a single cubic millimeter contain all six layers plus the underlying white matter?

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    511·
    4 months ago

    This reminds me of the DNA mapping project everyone expected to revolutionize research. Not sure where the state of it is now, but after they mapped the full human genome of DNA people kinda just shrugged for a while and did nothing with it.

    • its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      211·
      4 months ago

      That’s not true at all. Essentially every time you have heard of any disease linked to a gene its because of the Human genome project. 23 and me, that is also thanks to HGP. Lots of cancer research has also been done, identifying markers for cancer.

      You might not be aware of it, but has been vital for anyone genetic advancement.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      4 months ago

      At the time, it was assumed that genes and traits had a mostly one-to-one correspondence. Thanks to the human genome project we now know that it’s more often a many-to-many correspondence, which makes figuring out the relationships enormously more complex. But mapping the genome was still a critical step.

      Edit: The analogous situation in neurology would be the correspondence between brain regions and cognitive functions—in the last decade or two we’ve found out that most functions involve many separate brain regions networked together in different patterns for different functions. Mapping this “connectome” is the equivalent of mapping the genome—but this Harvard/Google neuron-mapping project is at a much lower level, more akin to studying the physical structure of chromosomes.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        312·
        4 months ago

        At the time, it was assumed that genes and traits had a mostly one-to-one correspondence.

        Assumed… By those seeking funding.

        • ripcord@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          4 months ago

          Yes, yes. Everything and everyone is bad, and has ill-intent all the time. We hear you.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          Yeah. All the biologists had their secret sinister meeting, where they came up with the evil idea that gene X did Y

          Then, once the public believed it, something something PROFIT!

          Oh those evil scientists! Curse them! Curse them all to hell! Down with their dastardly deception!