Title : Human brain mapping - The golden future of neuroscience
Abstract:
The brain, being the most complex organ in the human body, can’t be completely understood with today’s technology. Therefore, there mostly aren't certain cures for brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, dementias, brain cancer, epilepsy, mental disorders Parkinson’s disease and stroke, but only treatment methods. These treatment methods don’t offer a permanent result, suggesting that unless there is an exact cure, it is very hard for a patient with a brain disorder to be completely healed. In order to overcome this impediment, new technology to visualize the brain is being developed. Brain scan studies on an unprecedented scale were prompted by the search to comprehend how hereditary materials influence human brain development and disease. Researchers from all around the world worked together to generate genetic maps of the human cortex by performing statistically robust assessments of common and unusual genetic variants on brain measurements and rates of brain development and aging. One significant invention regarding these types of studies is called the “Human Brain Mapping”. Its history goes back to early 1990s. Main techniques used to map the brain include positron emission tomography, neoplasm, magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, neuroimaging, stimulation and electroencephalogram.
Recently, the Allen Institute organized a new international cooperation to map the roughly 200 billion cells in the human brain according to their type and function, just like how “Human Genome Project” mapped the entire genetic code. According to a member of the group led by Ed Lein, Ph.D., Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, “This is critical work: We need to understand the human brain better if we hope to treat diseases of the brain, and specifically we need a better understanding of brain function and structure. The cell atlases we’re building with the support of the BRAIN Initiative promise to lead to a more rapid understanding of the basis of many brain diseases.” This invention can be considered as the future of neuroscience as it can
provide answers and cures to brain disorders.
Keywords: Brain, Brain disorders, Human brain mapping
Audience Take Away
- What is known and unknown about the brain
- Types of vital brain disorders and their possibility to be cured by human brain mapping
- History of human brain mapping
- Techniques used in human brain mapping
- Where can human brain mapping be used in future
