The Biggest Brain Map in History Shows the Intricate Interactions of Neurons in Our Brains

An artist’s depiction of more than 200,000 cells forming a map of the brain. (Image Credit: Allen Institute)

Researchers have created the most comprehensive wiring diagram of the mammalian brain to date, offering an unprecedented insight into how neurons interact with one another of function. The new map captures a cubic millimetre of a mouse’s visual cortex and offers scientists the ability to study brain function in extreme detail, paving the way for future insights into the many intricacies of the brain.

This achievement took seven years to complete and involved work from 150 researchers from three institutions, ultimately resulting in a high-resolution, 3D map of more than 200,000 brain cells and more than 500 million synapses.

The process of creating this map began with a team of scientists recording neural activity from a part of a mouse’s visual cortex as it watched movies and clips from YouTube. From there, a second group dissected the same brain region, dividing it into layers the width of a human hair and photographing each slice. Lastly, a third team utilized artificial intelligence to trace all the cells from the images and reconstruct each slice into a 3D map.

The data is “really stunningly beautiful,” says Forrest Collman, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute of Brain Science who is a co-author of this study. “Looking at it really gives you an awe about the sense of complexity in the brain that is very much akin to looking up at the stars of night.”