New technology to see 'brain traffic map'

Recently, a team of professors from Zhejiang University School of Medicine's Institute of Systemic Neurology and Cognitive Sciences, Professor Wang Wei, developed infrared neurostatific functional magnetic resonance integration technology, which for the first time obtained sub-millimeter-level brain connection groups in the living brain, so as to achieve a faster, more systematic and clearer view of the "brain traffic map" to understand the transmission trajectory of information. The results were published in the journal Science Advances.the brain is dense, and the nerves in the brain are connected to each other to form networks. Information is entered from the sensory organs and transmitted and processed through the brain network, resulting in memory, emotion and behavior. Therefore, understanding the brain requires mastering "brain traffic maps", just as people travel with map navigation. In the past, scientists have often had to sacrifice animals to make brain pieces in complex and time-consuming ways. The new technology invented by Wang Wei's team combines laser stimulation and magnetic resonance functional imaging to quickly obtain the preliminary results of brain function connection in three-dimensional form and after a scan of 1 hour to 2 hours, which greatly facilitates the study of the response level of brain regions at the whole brain scale.when an infrared pulse of light hits the target brain region, causing a nerve response in the brain, which also causes corresponding changes in blood oxygen. This oxygen signal can be captured by magnetic resonance functional imaging. The team was able to capture the brain's response position at sub millimeter resolution, providing the basis for scientists to study the neural activity of the various functional columns and layers of the cerebral cortical layer.in primate brains, functional columns are units of information processing. "This method can be used to systematically stimulate the cortical function columns one by one, thus comprehensively depicting primate sub millimeter horizontal connection groups." Wang said the new technology will lay the foundation for mapping the whole brain network of high-resolution functional columns and open the door to large-scale study of full-brain functional connectivity. By clarifying the connections between the various functional columns, it will greatly help people understand how primate brains work, understand the development of brain diseases, and promote the development of neuroscience, psychology, medicine and artificial intelligence. (Health Report)