New Imaging Method Reveals Brain Connections 95
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety. A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. It is at these synapses that an electrical impulse traveling along one neuron is relayed to another, either enhancing or inhibiting the likelihood that the second nerve will fire an impulse of its own. One neuron may make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons, said Stephen Smith, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of a paper describing the study, to be published Nov. 18 in Neuron."
Re:First (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Imaging method BUT.... (Score:3, Funny)
Are you trying to say that Malpractice Insurance Ad isn't an accurate representation of what hundreds of thousands of Neurons look like?
Re:Only a matter of time (Score:2, Funny)
..Its (sic) only a matter of time before we can the other 90% of our brain
You go ahead and can yours. I'm keeping mine, thanks.
Re:will a future version of this work.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Doesn't work on a live brain (Score:2, Funny)
A slab of tissue — in this case, from a mouse's cerebral cortex — was carefully sliced into sections only 70 nanometers thick. (That's the distance spanned by 700 hydrogen atoms theoretically lined up side by side.) These ultrathin sections were stained with antibodies designed to match 17 different synapse-associated proteins, and they were further modified by conjugation to molecules that respond to light by glowing in different colors.
In case you were wondering, you have to be dead to be scanned with this technique, and it doesn't look like they will be able to press a button and scan a whole brain.
I'm not so sure that this small technicality will stop the TSA from installing one of these scanners :)
Re:Doesn't work on a live brain (Score:3, Funny)
No, they have brains, they just exhibit below average activity in the cortex, and above average activity in the limbic system.
That's why they think that any measure that is intended to "Protect the children" is OK.
(Consequently, it is also why they spend such an inordinate amount of time and resources chasing people around bathroom stalls and cloak rooms.)
Re:will a future version of this work.... (Score:2, Funny)
Noodles (Score:3, Funny)
The glorious smell of divine carbohydrates smothered in both marinara AND red sauce, nestling two bountiful orbs of meat and bread conglomerate.
Ramen brother, ramen.