MessageToEagle.com - The brain appears to be wired more like the checkerboard streets of New York City
than the curvy lanes of Columbia, Md., suggests a new brain imaging study. The most detailed images, to date,
reveal a pervasive 3D grid structure with no diagonals, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“Far from being just a tangle of wires, the brain's connections turn out to be more like ribbon cables — folding
2D sheets of parallel neuronal fibers that cross paths at right angles, like the warp and weft of a fabric,” explained
Van Wedeen, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and
the Harvard Medical School. “This grid structure is continuous and consistent at all scales and across humans and other primate species.”
Wedeen and colleagues report new evidence of the brain's elegant simplicity March 30, 2012 in the journal
Science. The study was funded, in part, by the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Human
Connectome Project of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, and other NIH components.
“Getting a high resolution wiring diagram of our brains is a landmark in human neuroanatomy,” said NIMH Director
Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
“This new technology may reveal individual differences in brain connections that could aid
diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders.”
Knowledge gained from the study helped shape design specifications for the most powerful brain scanner of its kind, which
was installed at MGH's Martinos Center last fall. The new Connectom diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner can
visualize the networks of crisscrossing fibers — by which different parts of the brain communicate with each other — in
10-fold higher detail than conventional scanners, said Wedeen.
“This one-of-a-kind instrument is bringing into sharper focus an astonishingly simple architecture
that makes sense in light of how the brain grows,” he explained. “The wiring of the mature brain appears
to mirror three primal pathways established in embryonic development.”
Detail from DSI scan shows fabric-like 3D grid structure of connections in monkey brain. Source: Van Wedeen, M.D.,
Martinos Center and Dept. of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University Medical School
As the brain gets wired up in early development, its connections form along perpendicular pathways, running
horizontally, vertically and transversely.
This grid structure appears to guide connectivity like lane markers
on a highway, which would limit options for growing nerve fibers to change direction during development. If they can
turn in just four directions: left, right, up or down, this may enforce a more efficient, orderly way for the fibers
to find their proper connections — and for the structure to adapt through evolution, suggest the researchers.
Obtaining detailed images of these pathways in human brain has long eluded researchers, in part, because the
human cortex, or outer mantle, develops many folds, nooks and crannies that obscure the structure of its connections.
Although studies using chemical tracers in neural tracts of animal brains yielded hints of a grid structure, such
invasive techniques could not be used in humans.
The human brain's connections turn out to be a an orderly 3D grid structure with no diagonals. Credits: Van Wedeen, M.D.,
Martinos Center and Dept. of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University Medical School
In the current study, researchers performed DSI scans on postmortem brains of four types of monkeys — rhesus, owl, marmoset
and galago — and in living humans. They saw the same 2D sheet structure containing parallel fibers crossing paths everywhere
in all of the brains — even in local path neighborhoods.
The grid structure of cortex pathways was continuous with those of
lower brain structures, including memory and emotion centers. The more complex human and rhesus brains showed more
differentiation between pathways than simpler species.
Among immediate implications, the findings suggest a simplifying framework for understanding the brain's structure, pathways
and connectivity.
The technology used in the current study was able to see only about 25 percent of the grid structure in human brain.
It was only apparent in large central circuitry, not in outlying areas where the folding obscures it. But lessons learned were
incorporated into the design of the newly installed Connectom scanner, which can see 75 percent of it, according to Wedeen.
“Before, we had just driving directions. Now, we have a map showing how all the highways and byways are interconnected,”
said Wedeen. “Brain wiring is not like the wiring in your basement,
where it just needs to connect the right endpoints. Rather, the grid is the language of the brain and wiring and
re-wiring work by modifying it.”
Hidden Misshapen Celestial "Wonder"
It is one of the brightest and strangest objects in the Milky Way - the corpse of a star that exploded around 1000 years ago.
Only a handful of such young supernova remnants are known.
The object named G350.1-0.3 is also incredibly small (only eight light years across) and young in astronomical terms.
Alien Species Living In The Inner Milky Way Could Be In Danger
Few people doubt there is intelligent alien life in the Milky Way galaxy, but where can we expect to find it?
Astronomers think that while the inner sector of the MIlky Way Galaxy may be the most likely to support habitable worlds.
Unfortunately some of these places are also most dangerous to all life-forms.
Black Holes With No 'Table Manners' Eat Two Courses At Once!
It is still unknown how the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centres accrete gas and grow.
Researchers from the University of Leicester (UK) and Monash University in Australia have investigated how some black holes got so big so fast that they are billions of times heavier than the sun.
Mercury Surprises Scientists
On March 17, MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) completed its one-year primary mission, orbiting Mercury, capturing nearly 100,000 images, and recording data
that reveals new information about the planet's core, topography, and the mysterious radar bright material in the permanently shadowed areas near the poles.
Living Earth Simulator - Supercomputer Predicting The Future
In Douglas Adams book the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy we encounter a machine called Deep Thought. It is the most powerful computer ever built. Deep Thought is capable of answering questions
concerning life, the Universe, and simply everything. Now scientists are planning to create a similar machine. It is called the Living Earth Simulator (LES).
Warp-Speed Planets Are Some Of The Fastest Objects In The Milky Way
Warped planets are some of the fastest objects in the Milky Way and they zoom through space near the speed of light.
Some years ago astronomers were astonished when they they found the first runaway star flying out of our Galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour.
The discovery intrigued theorists, who wondered: If a star can get tossed outward at such an extreme velocity, could the same thing happen to planets?
Though the universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars, the discovery of a single variable star in 1923 altered the
course of modern astronomy. And, at least one famous astronomer of the time lamented that the discovery had shattered his world view.
Bright Star In The Constellation Lyra Is Cooler Than The Human Body
The coldest class of stars have temperatures as cool as the human body.
Astronomers hunted these dark orbs, termed Y dwarfs, for more than a decade without success.
When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see.
Thermonuclear Burning In A Neutron Star Detected For The First Time!
It's a very important discovery!
For the first time, an international team of scientists have detected all phases of thermonuclear burning in a
neutron star, located close to the center of the galaxy in the globular cluster Terzan 5.
Astronomical Mystery - Tremendous Explosion And Appearance Of Odd Rings
Twenty five years ago, on 1987 February 23, the brightest supernova of modern times was observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The collision occurred at speeds near 60 million kilometers per hour and shock-heats the ring material causing it to glow.
Over time, astronomers have watched and waited for the expanding debris from this tremendous stellar explosion to crash into previously expelled material...
The "Cloaked" Star Was Difficult To Find
An object obscured by dust, and buried in a two-star system enshrouded by dense gas, is not easy to find.
A "cloaked" star was discovered after it ate a little of its neighbor. The meal must have given the star a bit of indigestion, because it
"burped" with a blast of high-energy radiation, which gave it away.
MessageToEagle.com - The brain appears to be wired more like the checkerboard streets of New York City
than the curvy lanes of Columbia, Md., suggests a new brain imaging study. The most detailed images, to date,
reveal a pervasive 3D grid structure with no diagonals, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health.
It is one of the brightest and strangest objects in the Milky Way - the corpse of a star that exploded around 1000 years ago.
Only a handful of such young supernova remnants are known.
The object named G350.1-0.3 is also incredibly small (only eight light years across) and young in astronomical terms.
Few people doubt there is intelligent alien life in the Milky Way galaxy, but where can we expect to find it?
Astronomers think that while the inner sector of the MIlky Way Galaxy may be the most likely to support habitable worlds.
Unfortunately some of these places are also most dangerous to all life-forms.
It is still unknown how the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centres accrete gas and grow.
Researchers from the University of Leicester (UK) and Monash University in Australia have investigated how some black holes got so big so fast that they are billions of times heavier than the sun.
On March 17, MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) completed its one-year primary mission, orbiting Mercury, capturing nearly 100,000 images, and recording data
that reveals new information about the planet's core, topography, and the mysterious radar bright material in the permanently shadowed areas near the poles.
In Douglas Adams book the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy we encounter a machine called Deep Thought. It is the most powerful computer ever built. Deep Thought is capable of answering questions
concerning life, the Universe, and simply everything. Now scientists are planning to create a similar machine. It is called the Living Earth Simulator (LES).
Warped planets are some of the fastest objects in the Milky Way and they zoom through space near the speed of light.
Some years ago astronomers were astonished when they they found the first runaway star flying out of our Galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour.
The discovery intrigued theorists, who wondered: If a star can get tossed outward at such an extreme velocity, could the same thing happen to planets?
Though the universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars, the discovery of a single variable star in 1923 altered the
course of modern astronomy. And, at least one famous astronomer of the time lamented that the discovery had shattered his world view.
The coldest class of stars have temperatures as cool as the human body.
Astronomers hunted these dark orbs, termed Y dwarfs, for more than a decade without success.
When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see.
It's a very important discovery!
For the first time, an international team of scientists have detected all phases of thermonuclear burning in a
neutron star, located close to the center of the galaxy in the globular cluster Terzan 5.
Twenty five years ago, on 1987 February 23, the brightest supernova of modern times was observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
An object obscured by dust, and buried in a two-star system enshrouded by dense gas, is not easy to find.