The analyzed locations: visual system (purple line), auditory (orange) and motor area (dark grey), and the somatosensory location (green line). Credit: D. Zachlod, Julich Brain Atlas
Undoubtedly, the human brain is extremely complex, with about 100 billion nerve cells and an approximated 100 trillion connections. Even if you understand the significant locations of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, thalamus, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, hippocampus, medulla, and amygdala oblongata, youre still far from understanding how the brain is arranged on a much deeper level that includes cellular, molecular, and gene expression patterns and relationships.
Researchers at the Human Brain Project, a large research study job with over 500 scientists from 123 organizations, are working to comprehend the deep intricacies of the human brain. With their custom-made research facilities, they are advancing neuroscience to the next level.
Particular cellular, molecular, and gene expression patterns in brain areas are connected to function, but their exact relationships remain mostly unknown. New findings by researchers at the Human Brain Project (HBP) shed light on these relationships and enable a more extensive understanding of human brain company.
The HBP researchers performed a study that targeted 3 levels of cortical organization: cytoarchitecture, neurotransmitter receptor architecture, and neurotransmitter receptor gene expression. The research study clarifies concepts of human brain organization throughout the visual, auditory, somatosensory, and motor functional systems, going beyond the streamlined view of a mosaic of locations forming the neocortex.” Bridging the gaps between different levels of brain organization is one of the greatest difficulties in neuroscience today. In the Julich Brain Atlas, we can do it methodically.
The HBP scientists conducted a study that targeted three levels of cortical organization: cytoarchitecture, neurotransmitter receptor architecture, and neurotransmitter receptor gene expression. The research study illuminates concepts of human brain organization across the visual, acoustic, somatosensory, and motor practical systems, exceeding the streamlined view of a mosaic of areas forming the neocortex. The results were released in the journal NeuroImage.
To reveal the various residential or commercial properties of functional systems, and how brain locations within a practical system vary with regard to the processing hierarchy– from main to higher associative, the team examined receptorarchitectonic and cytoarchitectonic data of the Julich Brain Atlas– a three-dimensional multimodal atlas of the human brain– and compared the information with transcriptomic data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas.
” Bridging the spaces in between various levels of brain company is among the biggest difficulties in neuroscience today. In the Julich Brain Atlas, we can do it systematically. It incorporates the data and is an invaluable tool,” says Daniel Zachlod, first author of the study.
The scientists examined the relationship of neurotransmitter receptor densities with their corresponding genes in 15 cytoarchitectonic locations of the visual, acoustic, somatosensory, and motor systems. They evaluated differential gene expression within brain areas of each of those functional systems.
” We discovered that the receptor architecture and gene expression patterns within a functional system modification in a methodical way, in correspondence to increasing intricacy of information processing,” describes HBP Scientific Director Katrin Amunts, who is last author of the research study.
The study demonstrates a method to decipher structure-function relationships by using the multilevel Julich-Brain Atlas to bridge the various scales of brain organization.
Previous studies had actually currently suggested the significance of receptor gene expression for the practical distinction of the brain in rodents, however data on the human brain is much sparser and more fragmented. The authors of today research study argue that it is obligatory to extend such research studies to the human brain, in order to better comprehend the healthy brain, in addition to the pathogenesis of brain conditions with changes in neurotransmitter systems.
Recommendation: “Combined analysis of cytoarchitectonic, transcriptomic and molecular patterns reveal differences in brain organization across human functional brain systems” by Daniel Zachlod, Sebastian Bludau, Sven Cichon, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher and Katrin Amunts, 19 May 2022, NeuroImage.DOI: 10.1016/ j.neuroimage.2022.119286.