Posted on 07/01/2008 8:05:21 PM PDT by neverdem
The outer layer of the brain, the reasoning, planning and self-aware region known as the cerebral cortex, has a central clearinghouse of activity below the crown of the head that is widely connected to more-specialized regions in a large network similar to a subway map, scientists reported Monday.
The new report, published in the free-access online journal PLoS Biology, provides the most complete rough draft to date of the cortex’s electrical architecture, the cluster of interconnected nodes and hubs that help guide thinking and behavior. The paper also provides a striking demonstration of how new imaging techniques focused on the brain’s white matter — the connections between cells, rather than the neurons themselves — are filling in a dimension of human brain function that has been all but dark.
In previous studies, scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to identify peaks and valleys of neural activity when people are doing various things, like making decisions, reacting to frightening images or reliving painful memories. But these studies, while provocative, revealed virtually nothing about the underlying neural networks involved — about which brain regions speak to one another and when. Previous estimates of network structure, based on such imaging, have been sketchy.
The new findings, while not conclusive, give scientists what is essentially a wiring diagram that they can test and refine.
“This is just about the coolest paper I’ve seen in a long time, and forward-looking in terms of where the science is going,” said Dr. Marcus E. Raichle, a professor of neurology and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the research. He added, “They’ve found in the brain what looks like a hub map of the airline system for the United States.”
In the study, a collaboration that included the University of Lausanne in...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You might be interested in this paper linked in comment# 1.
***“They’ve found in the brain what looks like a hub map of the airline system for the United States.”***
So what you’re saying is that our brain is “never on time, a total mess of a system and needs a massive overhaul”?
That’s depressing.
Ping me when they find the Pontifical Neuron.
LOL!
***Scientists Identify the Brain’s Activity Hub***
Isn’t that found behind the zipper?
How about mirror neurons?
When a female is after the males credit card? Yes.
Neurologists would have a fun time trying to find out how my brain works.
;-)
Ping for later
I’m only turning 23 in October, but yeah, there’s a few.
Condiment nazis? Send them to the salt mines!
Gator Blood Destroys Deadly Superbugs
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
The universe within the universe.
Bump for later
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about, especially the Single-Neuron Theory of Consciousness. Along the way I had the good fortune to work with both E. Roy John and Eliot Valenstein, and this topic was our most heuristic one.
LOL! Thanks for the link.
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