by Robert Perkins
What's the route between smell and memory? Where's the connection between habits and Parkinson's disease? How does habit detour into addiction?
To answer these and other complex scientific and medical questions, two USC Dornsife scientists have built Golgi (www.useGolgi.com), an interactive map of a rat brain that makes exploring the brain as easy as using Google Maps.
The new web app, unveiled today, offers details at the click of a button about how the regions of the brain communicate and interact. Golgi will help accelerate the research and treatment of ailments like Parkinson's and depression by layering complex scientific data onto a single simple brain map that provides information to doctors and researchers quickly and intuitively.
"We have a big advantage because we're the only group—really in the world—that has a flat map of the brain," said National Academy member Larry Swanson, professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife and recent past president of the Society for Neuroscience.
Swanson, a longtime pillar of the neuroscience community, collaborated with 25-year-old USC Dornsife graduate student Ramsay Brown, who designed the program while an undergraduate worker in Swanson's lab.
Golgi takes the existing pool of knowledge about the brain and makes it easy to access by scientists and doctors, saving time and offering potentially new connections. It uses research on rat brains, which are close enough to human brains to offer valuable insights but are far easier to study and therefore represent a larger pool of research data.
This video is not supported by your browser at this time.
A USC Dornsife professor and his graduate student created a map of the brain. Video by Mira Zimet and Matt Meindl
To display the brain's three-dimensional structure on two-dimensional screens, Swanson and Brown used the embryonic brain—which begins as a flat sheet of cells—as a guide. This flattens the brain and keeps related portions of the brain located close together. Flattening the brain lets users click around and display connectome and other data directly on regions they're interested in learning about for research or treatment.
"We designed a really intuitive way to explore the more nuanced details about the brain and connectome," Brown said. "Making this data easy and accessible will improve how scientists and doctors explore, explain and treat human conditions and restore quality of life—and that's really special to us."
Brown and Swanson think this program is just the beginning. Connectomics, the subfield of neuroscience that studies and maps the brain's wiring, is advancing quickly and providing better maps as the technique evolves. Programs like Golgi will help doctors and researchers make sense of these new maps and make better medical and scientific decisions faster.
"Many people now think that understanding these neurological diseases is going to require understanding the circuitry of the brain," Swanson said.
Explore further: A lexicon of the brain
More information: The map can be found online at www.useGolgi.com and correspondence can be sent to usegolgi@gmail.com.
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by Robert Perkins
What's the route between smell and memory? Where's the connection between habits and Parkinson's disease? How does habit detour into addiction?
To answer these and other complex scientific and medical questions, two USC Dornsife scientists have built Golgi (www.useGolgi.com), an interactive map of a rat brain that makes exploring the brain as easy as using Google Maps.
The new web app, unveiled today, offers details at the click of a button about how the regions of the brain communicate and interact. Golgi will help accelerate the research and treatment of ailments like Parkinson's and depression by layering complex scientific data onto a single simple brain map that provides information to doctors and researchers quickly and intuitively.
"We have a big advantage because we're the only group—really in the world—that has a flat map of the brain," said National Academy member Larry Swanson, professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife and recent past president of the Society for Neuroscience.
Swanson, a longtime pillar of the neuroscience community, collaborated with 25-year-old USC Dornsife graduate student Ramsay Brown, who designed the program while an undergraduate worker in Swanson's lab.
Golgi takes the existing pool of knowledge about the brain and makes it easy to access by scientists and doctors, saving time and offering potentially new connections. It uses research on rat brains, which are close enough to human brains to offer valuable insights but are far easier to study and therefore represent a larger pool of research data.
This video is not supported by your browser at this time.
A USC Dornsife professor and his graduate student created a map of the brain. Video by Mira Zimet and Matt Meindl
To display the brain's three-dimensional structure on two-dimensional screens, Swanson and Brown used the embryonic brain—which begins as a flat sheet of cells—as a guide. This flattens the brain and keeps related portions of the brain located close together. Flattening the brain lets users click around and display connectome and other data directly on regions they're interested in learning about for research or treatment.
"We designed a really intuitive way to explore the more nuanced details about the brain and connectome," Brown said. "Making this data easy and accessible will improve how scientists and doctors explore, explain and treat human conditions and restore quality of life—and that's really special to us."
Brown and Swanson think this program is just the beginning. Connectomics, the subfield of neuroscience that studies and maps the brain's wiring, is advancing quickly and providing better maps as the technique evolves. Programs like Golgi will help doctors and researchers make sense of these new maps and make better medical and scientific decisions faster.
"Many people now think that understanding these neurological diseases is going to require understanding the circuitry of the brain," Swanson said.
Explore further: A lexicon of the brain
More information: The map can be found online at www.useGolgi.com and correspondence can be sent to usegolgi@gmail.com.
Medical Xpress on facebook
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A lexicon of the brain
Sep 03, 2014
In April 2013, University Professor Larry Swanson visited the White House in Washington, D.C., to hear President Barack Obama unveil his Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) ...
Brain's wiring: More network than pyramid?
Aug 09, 2010
The brain has been mapped to the smallest fold for at least a century, but still no one knows how all the parts talk to each other.
Scientists reveal complexity in the brain's wiring diagram
Sep 04, 2014
(Medical Xpress)—When Joanna Mattis started her doctoral project she expected to map how two regions of the brain connect. Instead, she got a surprise. It turns out the wiring diagram shifts depending on ...
Where does it hurt? Pain map discovered in the human brain
Nov 29, 2012
(Phys.org)—Scientists have revealed the minutely detailed pain map of the hand that is contained within our brains, shedding light on how the brain makes us feel discomfort and potentially increasing our ...
Australian scientists map mouse brains in greatest detail yet
Apr 29, 2013
(Medical Xpress)—Hopes for a cure for many brain diseases may rest on the humble mouse, now that scientists can map the rodents' brains more thoroughly than ever before.
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13 hours ago
A new study, which may have implications for approaches to education, finds that brain mechanisms engaged when people allow their minds to rest and reflect on things they've learned before may boost later ...
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14 hours ago
Preexisting differences in the sensitivity of a key part of each individual's immune system to stress confer a greater risk of developing stress-related depression or anxiety, according to a study conducted ...
Sport in old age can stimulate brain fitness, but effect decreases with advancing age
15 hours ago
Physical exercise in old age can improve brain perfusion as well as certain memory skills. This is the finding of Magdeburg neuroscientists who studied men and women aged between 60 and 77. In younger individuals regular ...
Design of micro and nanoparticles to improve treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
18 hours ago
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Research reveals likelihood, onset of MS diagnosis among patients with inflammatory eye disease
21 hours ago
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Oct 17, 2014
Its central finding is that our nervous system uses past visual experiences to predict how blurred objects would look in sharp detail.
User comments
© Medical Xpress 2011-2014, Science X network
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