4 ms·

100-hour MRI captures the most detailed view yet of a whole human brain

58 points by howard941 7y ago

jfengel 7y ago
For those wondering how somebody sits still for 100 hours in an MRI, the answer is contained in the word "postmortem" in the subhead. This isn't functional MRI, which observes the brain as it's working. This is a very high resolution static picture at a tens-of-microns scale. Assuredly very useful, but different from fMRI, which is what I first associate when somebody says "MRI" and "brain".
- 99052882514569 7y ago
  >fMRI, which is what I first associate when somebody says "MRI" and "brain". That's an odd first-association. fMRI is not used much outside the brain, but neuroimaging relies on structural contrasts (i.e. "normal" MRI) and diffusion imaging (a proxy for looking at axonal connectivity) just as much as on functional ones.
dano 7y ago
The breakthrough is the MRI system itself with this particular scan demonstrating an enormous new potential. The underlying research paper is at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/649822v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/649822v1
UI_at_80x24 7y ago
I wonder if any patients in coma's were considered. I'd think it would be tremendously valuable to compare the difference between a living and a 'dead' brain. *This might get into philosophical realm of brain dead vs alive. I'm just talking about 'active blood flow' and let the additional nuance about the other things be worried about by somebody who isn't me.
- azinman2 7y ago
  They’re still breathing which means they move.
- elil17 7y ago
  Even the movement of blood through the brain can cause blur at this scale. The person needs to be very dead for this to work.
codedokode 7y ago
Is not 0.1 mm too coarse? Neurons are much smaller. Also, I wonder what is the black hole in the middle of the left image?
- electricviolet 7y ago
  I believe that dark area is the corpus callosum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum) -- bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
  - smtpserver 7y ago
    That is above/around the black area. The black area is the lateral ventricle. It normally contains cerebrospinal fluid, however on the image it is empty.
- iClaudiusX 7y ago
  The "hole" is a part of the ventricular system that produces cerebro-spinal fluid that circulates within the brain and spinal cord. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_system
bynkman 7y ago
The average human brain is 1450 cubic centimeters. With a resolution of 0.1 millimeters, that's 100 * 100 * 100 data points in a cubic centimeter. For approximately 1.45 billion data points for one brain!
smtpserver 7y ago
Here is one from a living person with 0.25mm resolution (data is also available to download) https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201732 https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201732 Scan time here is 53 minutes.

58 points by howard941 7y ago

For those wondering how somebody sits still for 100 hours in an MRI, the answer is contained in the word "postmortem" in the subhead. This isn't functional MRI, which observes the brain as it's working. This is a very high resolution static picture at a tens-of-microns scale. Assuredly very useful, but different from fMRI, which is what I first associate when somebody says "MRI" and "brain".

99052882514569 7y ago
>fMRI, which is what I first associate when somebody says "MRI" and "brain". That's an odd first-association. fMRI is not used much outside the brain, but neuroimaging relies on structural contrasts (i.e. "normal" MRI) and diffusion imaging (a proxy for looking at axonal connectivity) just as much as on functional ones.

dano 7y ago

The breakthrough is the MRI system itself with this particular scan demonstrating an enormous new potential. The underlying research paper is at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/649822v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/649822v1

UI_at_80x24 7y ago

I wonder if any patients in coma's were considered. I'd think it would be tremendously valuable to compare the difference between a living and a 'dead' brain. *This might get into philosophical realm of brain dead vs alive. I'm just talking about 'active blood flow' and let the additional nuance about the other things be worried about by somebody who isn't me.

azinman2 7y ago
They’re still breathing which means they move.
elil17 7y ago
Even the movement of blood through the brain can cause blur at this scale. The person needs to be very dead for this to work.

codedokode 7y ago

Is not 0.1 mm too coarse? Neurons are much smaller. Also, I wonder what is the black hole in the middle of the left image?

electricviolet 7y ago
I believe that dark area is the corpus callosum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum) -- bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
- smtpserver 7y ago
  That is above/around the black area. The black area is the lateral ventricle. It normally contains cerebrospinal fluid, however on the image it is empty.
iClaudiusX 7y ago
The "hole" is a part of the ventricular system that produces cerebro-spinal fluid that circulates within the brain and spinal cord. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_system

bynkman 7y ago

The average human brain is 1450 cubic centimeters. With a resolution of 0.1 millimeters, that's 100 * 100 * 100 data points in a cubic centimeter. For approximately 1.45 billion data points for one brain!

smtpserver 7y ago

Here is one from a living person with 0.25mm resolution (data is also available to download) https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201732 https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201732 Scan time here is 53 minutes.