Scientists develop the first complete atlas of white-matter micro-structure in the human brain

Updated on: Monday, October 22, 2012

Scientists have developed the first complete atlas of white-matter micro-structure in the human brain.

The new atlas combines three-dimensional images from the MRI scans of 100 brains of volunteers. To achieve this, scientists developed advanced MRI methods providing unprecedented detail and accuracy.

Professor Daniel Alexander, a CONNECT steering committee member from the University College London Department of Computer Science said, "The UCL team used the latest computer modelling algorithms and hardware to invent new imaging techniques. The techniques we devised were key to realising the new CONNECT brain atlas."

"The imaging techniques reveal new information about brain structure that help us understand how low-level cellular architecture relate to high-level thought processes." Alexander said.

Currently, biomedical research teams around the world studying brain science rely on a brain atlas produced by painstaking and destructive histological methods on the brains of a few individuals who donated their bodies to science.

The new atlas simulates the impossible process of painstakingly examining every mm2 of brain tissue with a microscope, while leaving the brain in tact.

The key novelty in the atlas is the mapping of microscopic features (such as average cell size and packing density) within the white matter, which contains the neuronal fibres that transmit information around the living brain.

The results provide new depth and accuracy in our understanding of the human brain in health and disease. The atlas describes the brain's micro-structure in standardised space, which enables non-expert users, such as physicians or medical researchers, to exploit the wealth of knowledge it contains.

The atlas contains a variety of new images that represent different microscopic tissue characteristics, such as the fibre diameter and Faber density across the brain.

These images will serve as the reference standard of future brain studies in both medicine and basic neuroscience.

A team of European scientists relied on groundbreaking MRI technology and was funded by the EU's future and emerging technologies program with a grant of 2.4 million Euros.

The project's final results have the potential to change the face of neuroscience and medicine over the coming decade.

Scientists develop the first complete atlas of white-matter micro-structure in the human brain

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