A number of techniques are available to investigate the question of how and where in the brain particular perceptual and cognitive processes occur. And Neuroimaging, or brain scanning, includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacology of the brain.
These techniques allow doctors and researchers to view activity or problems within the human brain, without invasive neurosurgery. There are a number of accepted, safe imaging techniques in use today in research facilities and hospitals throughout the world.
Therefore, in an attempt to make industrial-scale high-resolution brain mapping a standard tool for neuroscience rather than being carried out when necessary, the Chinese have set up a huge facility which aims to transform high-resolution brain mapping.
There has been an increasing demand on mapping the neuron connections in brains to better understand their functions and treat neuron-based diseases like Alzheimer’s. The institution, established by Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), intends to speed up the process, formerly carried out by smaller labs, at a factory-like scale.
The facility is currently engaged in the mapping of mouse brains. The process involves slicing the mouse brains into pieces with automatic machines, then having each piece analyzed
by a device, and combine them together to create a 3D map. The facility aims to eventually be able to conduct mapping work on human brains, though they are 1,500 times the volume of mouse brains.“This will have a major impact on building cell-resolution brain atlases in multiple species,” Josh Huang, a neuroscientist partnering with the Chinese institute said.
Mammalian brains have millions of cells, and human brains even have billions. And the cells come in some 10,000 different types, marked by differences in shape, size and the genes they express. By comparing particular neuron types across multiple brains, scientists might be able to pick out the effects of a disease or a learned behaviour on cell structure, says Jürgen Goldschmidt, a brain-imaging researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Neuro-biology in Magdeburg, Germany.
However, maps of such nature require months or years of effort. The process involves shaving centimetre-long mouse brains into 15,000 ultrathin slices with a diamond blade, staining each layer with chemicals or fluorescent tags to pick out particular features, imaging each layer with a microscope and then reconstructing the images into a 3D map.
And this is where the Suzhou institute comes into picture, its vast number of machines have impressive speed and resolution; the devices can gather the same amount of detail on a mouse brain in two weeks as would require months using other technologies, such as super-resolution confocal imaging.
The Suzhou institute will generate a huge amount of data: each mouse brain map alone will be 8 terabytes, Luo says. Luo, who calls himself a “brainsmatician”, also built the institute’s high-speed brain-imaging systems. He is keen for worldwide collaboration; along with the Allen Institute and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Stanford University in California is forming a partnership with the centre. But Luo says that interest is so high that he won’t be able to accommodate everyone. “We are already turning people down.”
