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Google helps publish the largest high-res map of brain connectivity
A joint effort between Google and the Janelia Research Campus has just achieved a significant breakthrough in brain mapping. They've published the largest high-resolution map of brain connectivity to date, offering a 3D model of 25,000 fruit fly neurons across a diverse range of cell types and multiple brain regions. The team achieved the feat by cutting sections of the fly's brain into ultra-thin (20-micron) slices, imaging those pieces with electron streams from a scanning electron microscope and stitching them back together. The result is a sophisticated map with so few disruptions that it's practical to trace neurons through the brain.
VR simulator for mice helps researchers study Alzheimer's
A group of scientists from Janelia Research Campus have built their lab mice some sort of an Oculus Rift of their own. Okay, so it's not a tiny VR headset for rodents -- though that would have been amusing to see -- but a simulator with walls that touch the mouse's whiskers on either side. This makes the mouse think it's moving through a maze, when it's really just running on a small spherical treadmill. The researchers created the system not because the lab mice needed entertainment: they built it so they can observe how a mammal's brain reacts to injury, learns how to find routes and forms memories. They believe that by having a better grasp of memory formation, we can also understand diseases that cause memory loss (like Alzheimer's) a lot better.
