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A new Brain map might become ‘modern atlas’ for neuroscientists | Identifies nearly 100 unknown regions

The brain looks like a featureless expanse of folds and bulges, but it’s actually carved up into invisible territories. Each is specialized: Some groups of neurons become active when we recognize faces, others when we read, others when we raise our hands.

Researchers have published a spectacular new map of the brain, detailing nearly 100 previously unknown regions, based on multiple scans of more than 400 individuals. Some experts are calling this a milestone in neuroscience.

The work is reported in Nature and the data is available to scientists online. It is the most significant result to date from the Human Connectome Project, a US-led collaboration aimed at unravelling the wiring of the human brain and how it affects behaviour.

The new map “is a major revision and updating” of previous maps,” said David Van Essen, senior author of the study. “Most of the new areas are in regions we associate with higher cognitive function,” he said.

This is version 1.0, and as new data comes in, there will be revisions, said Dr. Greg Farber, director of technology development at the National Institute of

Mental Health, echoing the authors of the research.

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How did they do it?

To create the colorful map, “We brought together a variety of methodological improvements,” explained Matthew Glasser, first author and a doctoral student in neuroscience.

The team used several different types of information, derived from lengthy scanning sessions of 210 people, to define the boundaries of 180 areas in each brain hemisphere.
To begin with, there were physical properties to consider – such as the amount of myelin, the substance which wraps nerve fibres, detected throughout the cortex; or variations in the folding and the thickness of the cortex.

But the researchers also looked at brain activity. Which regions were activated by particular tasks – reading as opposed to gambling, for example? And to what extent was activity in one area correlated and coordinated with activity elsewhere?

After using automatic computational tools to separate those 180 areas, the team set about testing and confirming the results on a fresh sample of 210 individual brains.
There were, perhaps inevitably, some differences between individuals, but brain researchers have welcomed the map as the most detailed human brain atlas to date.

Prof Tim Behrens, another computational neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, is involved in the HCP but was not an author on the new paper – which he described as “awe inspiring”.

“Obviously there are a bunch of people who have done parcellations before. But this one is extraordinary because of the level of precision.

“Every one of those 180 areas in this paper is described in detail – its relation to the previous literature, its functional properties, its anatomical properties… Nobody will do as good a job as this for a long time.

“It will now be the parcellation that is used by all of neuroscience, I would think.”

How will it be used?

Going forward, practical uses include the brain map becoming a tool for learning and teaching neurosurgery residents, and even planning operations, said Gupta, though the differences between people, slight though they may be, would still necessitate surgeons performing their own tests while planning brain operations.

Farber believes the map suggests that “sooner, rather than later,” doctors will be able to take an MRI of a person and say “you have autism” or “you are addicted to cigarettes.” In other words, thanks to the new schematic, increasingly sophisticated technologies should shortly be able to diagnose brain disorders.

“We think the field as a whole will start framing and formulating new questions based on the map,” Van Essen said.

Peace-lover, creative, smart and intelligent. Prapti is a foodie, music buff and a travelholic. After leaving a top-notch full time corporate job, she now works as an Online Editor for Biotecnika. Keen on making a mark in the scientific publishing industry, she strives to find a work-life balance. Follow her for more updates!