Image of the Day: Time Travel Through the Human Brain

Over the past 100-years, the way we visualize and understand the complexity of the brain has evolved due to huge strides microscope design and manufacture, together with the development of cell-staining techniques, gave neuroscientists their first glimpse at the specialized cells that make up the nervous system. Microscopes with more magnifying power enabled them to probe nerve cells in greater detail, revealing distinct compartments. Newer techniques expose the connections between nerve cells, revealing the complex organization of the brain.

In the 1980s, scientists developed fluorescent dyes to help them examine the long, thin extensions of neurons that carry information between these cells. Injected directly into the brain, the dye is incorporated into the cell membrane and transported along it, revealing the route of the nerve fiber. This image highlights the long-range connections between sensory areas of a mouse’s cerebral cortex and thalamus, often called the brain’s relay station. Fibers from the primary visual cortex are shown in red, while fibers from the primary somatosensory cortex, which processes bodily sensations, are shown in green.

Photo Credit: Maria Carmen Piñon and Zoltán Molnár/University of Oxford

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23758/