RSS Feeds
Science
Amazing DSI Brain Scanning Visualises Your Mind's Inner Workings In 3D
Posted by John Mahoney at 5:00 AM on August 8, 2008
What's that monkey thinking about when he's mushing down that banana or tossing faeces at you? Well, you're looking at it--this is a map of where a macaque's thoughts live. It's made possible by new 3D visualisation algorithms developed by neuroscientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston which render a brain's billions of individual neuron connections in full-colour 3D, with each visible strand representing several tens of thousands of the too-small-to-image neural pathways. It's all done by simply applying new processing to existing MRI scan data, and thankfully, it works on human brains too.
The tech, called diffusion spectrum imaging, takes current data from MRI scans and analyses it for the passage of water molecules along the individual neuron connections in the brain. It then processes it to spit out the 3D maps. It's possible to do on live subjects (like the human brain image above), but more detail can be achieved by scanning non-living samples for up to 24 hours.
Doctors are using the new images to better understand our brain's infinitely complicated wiring, and to avoid important neural nets during surgeries. More including 3D model animations (awesome) at: [Technology Review]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Clayton
Posted August 11, 2008 5:18 PM
That's amazing.
I could've sworn the second picture was the new and improved stealth feather duster the boys at Langley didn't want us to know about. :P
And if you'd told me the third picture was done by Ken Done when he was still an under-grad at uni experimenting with acid, I would've believed you!!
dharmag
Posted 5:32 AM 8/8/08
@daftrok: Somebody got a stiffy down in tha 'stro! Not flamin' on ya, just gettin a good chuckle.
dharmag
Ariel_Wollinger
Posted 5:27 AM 8/8/08
awesome. Kurzweil predictions coming true.
[www.kurzweilai.net]
Ariel_Wollinger
Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans
Posted 5:19 AM 8/8/08
It's missing something...
+ Watch video
Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans
bosskev
Posted 5:15 AM 8/8/08
Those ain't no fancy brain visualization thingies. Them's just photos taken in a Home Economics class after sweeping up around the sewing machines.
bosskev
UrIt
Posted 5:13 AM 8/8/08
i've seen something like this before, except it was blotches, and how each blotch decreases when different addicts were scanned, the worse one was Caffine... so many empty areas
UrIt
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Posted 5:10 AM 8/8/08
My brain is a trippy, psychedelic, baldman toupé?
Or deepsea creatures growing off a calcified cycling helmet, exposed to black light?
SigmundTheSeaMonster
behavin
Posted 5:09 AM 8/8/08
@hypnotik_jello: This is your brain sober... I think you'd have to be on acid to comprehend the brain on acid picture!
behavin
daftrok
Posted 5:08 AM 8/8/08
This is your brain after visiting Castro St.
daftrok
hypnotik_jello
Posted 5:02 AM 8/8/08
This is your brain, this is your brain on acid?
hypnotik_jello
Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans
Posted 6:08 AM 8/8/08
@The Terminator: Oh my Science. You're RIGHT!
Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans
froggy
Posted 6:03 AM 8/8/08
I bought one of those wigs for Halloween. Little did I know, I already had one. ;)
froggy
The Terminator
Posted 6:03 AM 8/8/08
Guys, this is HUGE. It's going to increase our understanding of the brain in ways we've never been able to before (hello "Altered Carbon"). I really hope this helps treat people with any number of neurological disorders.
Praise science!
The Terminator
t3rminal
Posted 5:46 AM 8/8/08
is this the kind of stuff that will aid the efforts in AI? Whatever, purdy colors
t3rminal
Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish
Posted 6:33 AM 8/8/08
@LoganSix: Hey do it in the trashcan earth man. Ship's brand new...c'mon..
Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish
LoganSix
Posted 6:30 AM 8/8/08
This is your brain after using the Infinite Improbability Drive.
Look! I'm throwing up yarn!
LoganSix
johnnyabnormal
Posted 6:27 AM 8/8/08
@dharmag: @daftrok: The first day I moved to San Francisco I walked around to check things out. I saw a Ben & Jerry's ice cream place and was like, "Yes!" I got a cone, but when I started to eat it these dudes started looking in the window at me. I didn't know what was up till one of them came in and asked, "Can I lick your cone?"
!!!!!!
I told some friends later and they laughed their asses off saying I had basically walked into Market & Castro which is arguably the gayest place in the universe. I'm actually glad it's that way: It makes a straight guy a more valuable find for the huge number of single women & keeps the homophobes away. Win/win in my book.
johnnyabnormal
bosskev
Posted 6:44 AM 8/8/08
@johnnyabnormal: Umm...where is this wondrous "Ben & Jerry's" of which you speak? I mean, here comes another weekend where it's just me and the cats.
bosskev
MastaFalse
Posted 6:42 AM 8/8/08
spamspamspamspam
Looks like that photoshop feather.
MastaFalse
SinAmos
Posted 6:36 AM 8/8/08
My brain scan is purrttyer than yourssss.
SinAmos
johnnyabnormal
Posted 7:10 AM 8/8/08
@bosskev: Ben & Jerry's
451 Castro St, San Francisco, CA
Ben & Jerry's
451 Castro St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 252-8181
Link: maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ben+and+jerry's&sll=37.761334,-122.43502&sspn=0.011111,0.020299&ie=UTF8&ll=37.761241,-122.435009&spn=0.011111,0.020299&z=17&iwloc=A
You'll have to copy and paste the link since the Giz splinters the link. I haven't been to a Ben & Jerry's since they discontinued "White Russian"....bastards!
johnnyabnormal
ReynaldoRiv
Posted 7:33 AM 8/8/08
Now what I REALLY want to see is this Brain Wave Imager's results in video form Before, During, and After a major mind fuck
ReynaldoRiv
johnnyabnormal
Posted 8:39 AM 8/8/08
@aec007: I read a book a few years back about the plasticity of the brain in adapting to new behaviors:
A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain" By John J. Ratey
Very interesting stuff. What you mentioned I've witnessed first hand: I used to teach guitar, bass and piano lessons when I was in high school. I had a six year old student who was playing jazz standards within a few months and a 40 year old guy who took 2 years to play the first 8 bars of "stairway to heaven". I know in some circumstances if something is not repetitive your muscle memory goes away. I haven't personally experienced that in music, even though it might be decades between playing a piece...although that might not be muscle memory and more to do with pitch/geometric memory and imaging.
johnnyabnormal
aec007
Posted 8:22 AM 8/8/08
@The Terminator: @Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish:
It is indeed a HUGE incredibly big step in undestandng the human brain.
I read about it in Scientific American last month.
The new 3D wiring map exposes some known facts and interconnects like hearing with motion control for balance, walking, etc.
It also provided incredible clues about the visual cortex.
Interestingly enough, they found that the old "use it or lose it" stands the test of time.
They found that interconnects between hearing, though and hand coordination centers for young musicians (piano and violin players) grew at a fast pace and created several 1000's more connections than on existing adults learning to play an instrument.
In fact in adults, the connections barely grew at all.
In those young musicians in the study that stopped playing for several months, the connections withered away.
From the study, they found that the brain removes unnecessary connections while it is still growing and creates others were needed. In a sense the brain rewires constantly to "optimize" connections and timing between signals. As we age we loose this ability to rewire the brain, thus making it very hard for an adult to learn to play an instrument, learn a new language, etc...
They also found the methodolgy in which the brain eliminated the connections (myelin sheeting in axons), so they think that in the very near future they could counter act the effect and actually allow the brain to regrow connections even at old age.
It could potentially help cure alzeimers, parkinson and other brain problems.
(Or create the ultimate super-nerd)
:)
BTW, Pictures are amazing.
aec007
Yekrut
Posted 9:40 AM 8/8/08
This is really amazing technology.
It will open up an entire new level of understanding how the brain works, which will allow scientist to hopefully better understand how drugs work in relation to our brain as well as help them understand how to heal it.
Its a very interesting field.
Yekrut
mattsmule
Posted 7:48 AM 8/8/08
Oh... it's a brain scan... I thought I was looking at the latest pubic accessory for the next Burning Man.
"New brain scan technology uses sophisticated loom to weave brain patterns into colorful merkin."
mattsmule