The most detailed map of brain connections has appeared

The new method, developed at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in the United States, usesDNA sequencing for

mapping the connections between different brain regions.The cost of mapping connections between distant areas of the brain compared to traditional microscopy techniques.

Researchers explained that neuroscientistsThey need anatomical maps to understand how information from one part of the brain enters and affects other parts of the organ. Such data make it possible to understand how the nervous system processes information, and in which cases system disorders can lead to mental illness or other disorders. However, before the creation of such maps was an expensive and time-consuming process, therefore they were not available to most research groups.

Scientists have come up with a new method of cartring -Sequenced fixation of organ connections. They did not mark individual brain regions and their projections with colors; instead, they labeled them with nucleotide sequences. So they were able to get short “barcodes”, which create an infinite number of connections, allowing to distinguish one cell from another. After labeling, the researchers used the DNA sequence to analyze tiny segments of the brain tissue, interpreting each repeated “barcode” as a signal of a cell connection.

Researchers have already reported that their method maps the relationship between different areas of the mouse brain in great detail. However, in the future it will be adapted to other organisms, including humans.

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