2013年6月21日讯 /生物谷 Bioon.com/--虚拟的大脑图谱如3D打印技术一直以来被神经科学家誉为了解大脑的结构和功能的有力工具。日前研究人员利用3D打印技术首次建成人类大脑的3D模型，显示出了脑细胞结构的细节。此超高分辨率图谱，被称为“BigBrain”，图谱可以展示皮质层细胞结构甚至是脑神经元之间微电流，这让研究人员能够了解到脑细胞之间的连接是如何产生复杂的行为。这项技术是科学家经过五年的努力，被视为神经科学家必备的看家本领，有望加快这一领域的发展。相关报道在6月21日《科学》杂志上报道。
BigBrain图谱集在揭示大脑结构方面，分辨率是MRI扫描仪的50倍。更重要的是，它不需要核磁共振，也不将组织样本放在显微镜玻片，就能帮助研究人员、医生和药物开发研究人员，在检测人的大脑。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文文章
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1235381
BigBrain: An Ultrahigh-Resolution 3D Human Brain Model
Katrin Amunts, laude Lepage, Louis Borgeat, Hartmut Mohlberg, Timo Dickscheid, Marc-Étienne Rousseau, Sebastian Bludau, Pierre-Louis Bazin, Lindsay B. Lewis, Ana-Maria Oros-Peusquens, Nadim J. Shah, Thomas Lippert, Karl Zilles, Alan C. Evans
Reference brains are indispensable tools in human brain mapping, enabling integration of multimodal data into an anatomically realistic standard space. Available reference brains, however, are restricted to the macroscopic scale and do not provide information on the functionally important microscopic dimension. We created an ultrahigh-resolution three-dimensional (3D) model of a human brain at nearly cellular resolution of 20 micrometers, based on the reconstruction of 7404 histological sections. “BigBrain” is a free, publicly available tool that provides considerable neuroanatomical insight into the human brain, thereby allowing the extraction of microscopic data for modeling and simulation. BigBrain enables testing of hypotheses on optimal path lengths between interconnected cortical regions or on spatial organization of genetic patterning, redefining the traditional neuroanatomy maps such as those of Brodmann and von Economo.
