From Connectomics To Robotic Exoskeletons

 Neuroscience  

Ultrathin slices of mouse brains offer a mesmerizing look at how brain cells communicate at the tiniest scale. This research may offer clues about how the dance of our own synapses guides and animates us.

Jeff Lichtman of Harvard University explains the daunting challenge facing neuroscientists today: to understand how brains really work, “you’ve got to see the wires,” he says in the video above.

In a special issue of National Geographic, on the brain, Carl Zimmer highlights some of the most impressive areas of neuroscience research going on.

Researchers are learning so much about the brain now that it’s easy to forget that for much of history we had no idea at all how it worked or even what it was, suggests Zimmer.

Ultrathin slices of mouse brains offer a mesmerizing look at how brain cells communicate at the tiniest scale. Assembled through computer algorithms and a lot of hand-holding by scientists, the connectome of the brain is being unraveled, synapse by synapse.

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Eventually, such connectome mapping will be done for the complete human brain, generating a far greater understanding of our most important organ.  With this knowledge, scientists hope to find out more about neural diseases, paralysis and even the nature of consciousness itself.

At Duke University Miguel Nicolelis has been experimenting with exoskeletons that strap on to the body. Signals from the brain control each limb. Already he has gotten monkeys to control full-body exoskeletons. If all goes well, a paraplegic wearing a simpler version of the device will deliver the opening kick at the 2014 World Cup in Nicolelis’s native Brazil.

“Eventually brain implants will become as common as heart implants,” says Nicolelis. “I have no doubt about that.”

Image Source - Bryan Christie/National Geographic

People with spinal cord injuries can’t move because the brain and body no longer communicate. Scientists hope to restore motion with a mechanical skeleton controlled by the wearer’s thoughts. It’s a daunting challenge: Hundreds of sensors must be implanted in the brain to send commands to the exoskeleton. Signals must also travel in reverse, from touch sensors telling the brain where the body is in space.



SOURCE  National Geographic

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