Largest network of cortical neurons mapped from 100 terabytes data set

Neuroscientists have constructed a network map of connections between cortical neurons, traced from a 100 terabytes 3D data set. The data were created by an electron microscope in nanoscopic detail, allowing every one of the "wires" to be seen, along with their connections. Some of the neurons are color-coded according to their activity patterns in the living brain. The largest network of the connections between neurons in the cortex to date has been published by an international team of researchers from the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Harvard Medical School, and Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF). In the process of their study*, the researchers developed new tools that will be useful for "reverse engineering the brain by discovering relationships between circuit wiring and neuronal and network computations," says Wei-Chung Lee, Ph.D., Instructor in Neurobiology at Harvard Medicine School and lead author of a paper published this week in the journal Nature.