High-Resolution Brain Atlases in CyberSpace

Neubrain writes "After a long decade of the U.S. sponsored Human Brain Project, we still have not advanced our understanding of brain structure and function very far. In particular, the availability of online high-resolution brain atlases has been sorely lacking, though the technology and means have been around for well over a decade. This has been remedied by the recent appearance of online high-resolution atlases at a new site called Primate-Brain.org, whose official description is: "The Primate Brain Atlas is a digital cytoarchitectural atlas based on high-resolution images of serial sections of monkey brains that is fully integrated with a high-speed database server for querying and retrieving data about primate brain structure and function over the internet." Maybe this is the start of something that is going to advance our understanding of brain structure and function rapidly? You be the judge. Ever wonder what's going on inside your head. Well, now you can go and look in excruciating detail at primate-brain.org . Happy brain hunting!"

Image a computer; what does it tell you? Not much.

[Futurepower(R)]

That's NOT a stupid question! The hidden suggestion in the work is that we know a lot more about the brain than we really do, and that having brain scans will tell us enough to make a big difference. The scans are valuable, but we are at the beginning of understanding the brain.

Those who think that a scan of the brain will tell us much about the operation can do a thought experiment: Have your computer scanned, and try to see from the photos which programs were running, and how those programs operate.

Re:Image a computer; what does it tell you? Not mu

[Anonymous Coward]

Futurepower writes: "Those who think that a scan of the brain will tell us much about the operation can do a thought experiment: Have your computer scanned, and try to see from the photos which programs were running, and how those programs operate."

Very true, but the organization of computer hardware says A LOT about the types of software that can run on it. In neuroscience, there's a saying that structure implies function, or that neuroanatomy implies (or constrains) neural function. In understanding th

Ever wonder what's going on inside your head.

[Farmer Tim]

If Freudian slips really are an insight into the subconscious mind, I don't want to know...

Showing my age....

[psychgeek]

"Give the afflicted one well-grilled, fresh-killed, monkey brain" (sorry!)