The marvels of science are coming fast and furious these days. A big contributor to advances in our knowledge are mice. These little rodents have been used to test technology and treatments before they are (hopefully) adapted for use in or on humans.
Pixabay Popular Mechanics (PM)has the news that scientists at Rockefeller University in New York have developed a device capable of scanning and displaying in a 3D model, in real time, the brain activities of mice. PM writes that “the invention…is equipped with specialized group of lenses called a microlens array. The array helps the microscope capture images from multiple angles and depths on a sensor chip, which then produces a 3D record of neurons turning on and off as they communicate through electrical impulses inside the brain. A coaxial cable then transmits the data for recording.”
Wikimedia Commons “Until now, no one has been able to detect how these different neurons, which can be located at different depths within a volume of brain tissue, dynamically interact with each other in a freely moving rodent,” says Alipasha Vaziri, of the school’s Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, who led the study. The study was published in Nature Methods. Analyzing and conceptualizing the activities of a brain, even a mouse brain (no offense) is extremely difficult thanks to what is called “scattering”. This essentially refers to how one stimulus reaching the brain triggers a elaborate web of neural activity through multiple depths of brain nervous tissue. The Rockefeller team created a special formula to help decipher such extensive neural activity.
Pixabay “The algorithm utilizes the statistical properties of neurons’ distribution in space and in activity while extracting additional information from the scattered emission light. This enables their activity to be simultaneously and faithfully recorded within a volume despite of the highly scattering tissue properties,” Vaziri explained to PM. While the making of this ‘sausage’ is extremely complicated, the results on the 3D model are not hard to understand. Mechanics writes that “individual neurons can be seen clearly and brightly as they flash on and off. Knowing how neurons interact in brains suffering from schizophrenia could help scientists understand what’s exactly happening inside the patient’s mind.” Such a device for human use is still out of reach, but advances in technology and the help of our little furry friends means that one day we will be able to observe the real time operation of the brain.