White matter tracts seen from below – colour-coding shows the direction of fibre tracts. Figure from the Human Connectome Project gallery by LONI / UCLA & Martinos Center of Biomedical Imaging / MGH.
The BBC ran a story today on the Human Connectome Project. The story features a set of colorful pictures, which represent some of the first results of the massively ambitious, $40M endeavor to map the human connectome. The BBC article has the pretty pictures, while a recent advertorial* in Science has a bit more of the technical detail.
The Connectome Project attempts to map the neural connections in the human brain; the connectome (cf. genome) is unique for everyone, a result of genetic and environmental factors, as well as what we’ve learned and experienced in life.
Synchronised Minds 