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Exploring The Brain: New Technology Produces Images Of Neural Connections At Nanoscale Resolution
A new imaging tool allows scientists to generate images of the brain and its many neuronal connections at a previously unattainable nanoscale resolution. While the inventors’ immediate aim is to turn electron microscopy images of the brain into a minable dataset, over the long-term they hope to make the resource available to the scientific community in the form of a national brain observatory. Undoubtedly, this research will be instrumental in efforts to create a detailed map of the human brain.
What is a connectome?
The suffix "-ome" refers to a totality. The human genome, for instance, is the complete set of DNA carried by a single cell in the body. Similarly, the human connectome refers to a complete map of the structural and functional connectivity of the brain. Because neurons in our brains make connections in direct response to our experiences, the new tool is expected to help in the effort to map the connectome, ultimately revealing the similarities and differences among our individual brains. Dr. Narayanan Kasthuri, first author of the study and assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine, speculated the tool might answer a host of questions about individual differences among human brains.
"What parts of brains circtuitry are stereotyped and which part are variable across humans? How do human brains grow up given the dramatic differences in behavior between children and adults?" Kasthuri suggested to Medical Daily. The technology might also help explain neurological disorders by allowing scientists to compare the neuron-to-neuron connections in schizophrenia patients with those in healthy people.
Led by senior author Dr. Jeff Lichtman, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University, the inventors demonstrated their new automatic tape-collecting ultramicrotome (ATUM) on the brain of an adult mouse. To put it simply, what they did was cut the brain in slices, take a picture of each slice, and then put the images back together to form a 3D image on a computer, where it could be analyzed. This allowed them to create a detailed description of the brain.
In practical terms, the ATUM, which took two years to make, works like this: a diamond knife cuts sections from the brain at an ultrathin 29 nanometers. Immediately after they are cut, the sections are retrieved on a continuous conveyor belt. The pulling motion and adhesive tape of the conveyor belt force the captured sections to lie flat. Next, the tape is cut into strips and placed on silicon wafers that are photographed. Finally, the images are gathered together on a computer to form a completed picture of the brain. To make better sense of each image, the scientists used a special computer program to assign different colors as a way to piece apart each “object” (for example, neurons, glial cells, and blood vessel cells).
This video, courtesy of Cell and YouTube, explains this is in greater detail.
Even though this team of scientists is working with a minuscule area of the brain, one heart-stopping problem exists: a millimeter cubed, at nanoscale resolution, requires about two million gigabytes of computer data.
“Interestingly, the amount of data is close to what is currently transferred over the internet yearly," said Kasthuri. And, by comparison, the entire human genome is about three to five gigabytes. In short, the data storage demands for this research have never yet been encountered. However, just like genome sequencing, the researchers expect technology to continue to advance, thus ending these difficulties and lowering expenses over time.
The research was supported by, among others, the National Institutes of Health, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Intel, and Google, among others. This roster suggests the bandwidth of future practical applications for the technology is expected to be exceptional.
Source: Kasthuri N, Hayworth KJ, Berger DR, et al. Saturated Reconstruction of a Volume of Neocortex. Cell. 2015.
Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/exploring-brain-new-technology-produces-images-neural-connections-nanoscale-345434
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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