A study conducted by local high
school students and faculty from the Department of Computer and Information
Science in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis reveals new information about the motor circuits of the brain that
may one day help those developing therapies to treat conditions such as stroke,
schizophrenia, spinal cord injury or Alzheimer's disease. MRI and CAT scans of
the human brain can tell us many things about the structure of this most
complicated of organs, formed of trillions of neurons and the synapses via
which they communicate. But we are a long way away from having imaging
techniques that can show single neurons in a complex brain like the human brain.
Using computer vision and image
processing, researchers were able to visualize and process actual neurons of
model organisms. Their work in the brain of a model organism will help researchers
move forward to more complex organisms with the ultimate goal of reconstructing
the human central nervous system to gain insight into what goes wrong at the
cellular level when devastating disorders of the brain and spinal cord occur.
This understanding may ultimately inform the treatment of these conditions. In
this study, which processed images and reconstructed neuronal motor circuitry
in the brain, researchers collected and analyzed data on minute structures over
various developmental stages, efforts linking neuroscience and computer
science.
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