Swiss and American scientists have obtained the most detailed to date mapping of neuronal connections in the cerebral cortex. The scientists were the first to identify the area to connect in which the density of the intersections of axons, the different parts of the brain, the most high. Working with an Indiana University, Harvard Medical School (USA), University of Lausanne and the National Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland) applied innovative research of the brain - the so-called diffuse spectral imaging (DSI). Axons - This procedure is based on mapping of the probability density function of the diffusion of water molecules into the tissue can be used to record the spatial relationships between the nerve cells is based. Until recently, the process enables the functional magntino resonance imaging scientists to monitor the activation of only certain parts of the brain as a response to various stimuli, but the structure of the nerve fibers that connect these sides, mainly from animal models. C with a new technology researchers were able to trace the path of millions of nerve cells and, more importantly, to identify the highest density zone intersections of these processes - so to say, a central "communication center" of the brain. As it turned out, all the study participants, it was in the back of the medial cortex in both hemispheres. Not "This was known before, this area is interested scientists from a different perspective - says one of the study's lead author Olaf Sporns (Olaf Sporns) - for example, was known to be at rest in the field of energy in most continues, but Last time we could not explain why this is happening. " In the next stage of the researchers to find out how to identify structural relationships change with the aging of the brain, or as a result of injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. The report on the study in the journal PLoS Biology published.
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