Most Detailed 3D Reconstruction of Human Brain Tissue Ever Produced Yields Surprising Insights

May 30, 2024byDr. Monica M. Bertagnolli

The NIHBrain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiativehas expanded scientists understanding of the human brain in recent years, offering fascinating insights into the ways that individual cells and complex neural circuits interact dynamically to enable us to think, feel, and act. But neuroscientists still have much more to learn about how our brains are put together at the most fundamental, subcellular level.

As a step in that direction, in a new study supported in part by the NIH BRAIN Initiative and reported in the journalScience,researchers have created the most detailed nanoscale resolution map ever produced of a cubic millimeter of brain tissue, about the size of half a grain of rice.