FROM POPSCI
article by Rebecca Boyle posted 3/10/2011
Using a combination of microscopy methods, Harvard researchers have untangled part of the circuitry of the cerebral cortex, illuminating brain connections in 3-D. A new neural circuit model will allow researchers to crawl through the individual connections in a neural network.
Scientists have come a long way in imaging the connections among neurons in flies and mice, and can watch the brain process various types of information by watching neuron activity. But monitoring this activity shows scientists what the neural circuits are doing, not how they’re doing it. Understanding the ways in which neurons connect and communicate would shed more light on how the brain works, especially the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness and memory.
But this is hard to do, as a Harvard Medical School release explains: One cortical circuit contains tens of thousands of neurons, each of which makes tens of thousands of connections, totaling more than 1 billion individual connections. Untangling a tiny sliver of this web required a pair of microscopy techniques and a supercomputer.
“In a visual circuit, we’ll interpret the data to reconstruct what an animal actually sees. By that time, with the anatomical imaging, we’ll also know how it’s all wired together,” he said.
Article link: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/new-brain-circuit-model-demonstrates-how-neural-networks-work
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