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Unlocking the brain’s secrets
THE international team behind the atlas used thousands of images of the brains of people of all ages, and with a range of conditions. They hope the data will tell them more about which areas of the brain control specific functions in the body.
They have carried out brain scans on 7,000 people to obtain the data needed to create the map, and they say they will continue to add to the atlas as more research is carried out
Scientists from six countries have been involved in putting the atlas together. They also hope to be able to find out more about how the brains of people with particular conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia differ from healthy brains.
The brain map could help them spot the early signs of disease, they say. The only way to understand how the brain works, say experts, is to gather information from as many scans as possible, in an attempt to establish what an “average” brain looks like.
Dr John Mazziotta, an expert on the imagery of the human brain from the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) said: “No two brains are the same. Their shape. Their size. The way they are organized.
“You can’t just point at an area and say, ‘Here’s the seat of language’.
“For example, the brain handles the challenge of thinking and initiating a word, and of understanding that word differently.
“Execution of these tasks involves complex circuitry throughout the brain.”
Arthur Toga, professor of neurology at the UCLA, who also worked on the map, said: “We can now look at the information in different forms so you can look at different aspects of how the brain works.”
“We might be able to stratify the data on the basis of gender, or by disease.
“That could allow doctors to begin treatment early.” But the team’s work was not finished. — Dawn ScienceDotcom Report
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