Harvard and Google Map Brain Tissue in 3D
Researchers create largest synaptic-resolution 3D reconstruction of human brain, mapping neural connections in a tiny piece of temporal cortex.
Researchers from Google and Harvard have used artificial intelligence (AI) to map connections between neurons in a section of the human brain.
Image credit: Google Research and Lichtman Lab
- A Harvard team led by Jeff Lichtman has co-created with Google researchers the largest synaptic-resolution, 3D reconstruction of a piece of human brain to date.
- The reconstruction shows each cell and its web of neural connections in a piece of human temporal cortex about half the size of a rice grain.
- The feat is the latest in a nearly 10-year collaboration between scientists at Harvard and Google Research.
- The ultimate goal is to create a high-resolution map of a whole mouse brain’s neural wiring, which would entail about 1,000 times the amount of data they just produced from the 1-cubic-millimeter fragment of human cortex.
- The latest map contains never-before-seen details of brain structure, including a rare but powerful set of axons connected by up to 50 synapses.
- The team also noted oddities in the tissue, such as a small number of axons that formed extensive whorls.
- Lichtman’s field is “connectomics,” which seeks to create comprehensive catalogues of brain structure, down to individual cells and wiring.
- Google’s state-of-the-art AI algorithms allow for reconstruction and mapping of brain tissue in three dimensions.
- The team has developed a suite of publicly available tools researchers can use to examine and annotate the connectome.
Source: Harvard University