Matrix-like fly-through shows brain in amazing detail

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV

It may look like you're entering the Matrix but this video is actually a mouse brain fly-through captured with unprecedented sharpness. Imaged by Francesco Pavone from the European Laboratory for Non Linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Italy and his team, the 3D map was created by combining two microscope techniques to eliminate the blurriness that typically occurs when trying to capture large biological samples.

The video starts by navigating through the mouse cerebellum, where green spots represent neurons that generate all the electrical signals leaving the region. The subsequent close-ups move through neurons in the hippocampus, the area responsible for brain functions like memory or spatial navigation. When focusing on smaller regions like in the last clips, the benefit isn't in resolution so much as in the speed of the image capture.

The new technique is able to image a 3D sample slice by slice using lasers, while background blur is eliminated thanks to a filtering system that removes stray light. The team hopes it will give new insight into mouse versions of diseases like autism and stroke or be used to examine other types of biological specimens. Lusovico Silvestri, another member of the team, thinks it could also be developed to image human brain samples.

If you enjoyed this video, check out the first brain movie of a mouse thinking or see the complex brain of a primitive worm.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2302f190/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C0A90Cmatrix0Elike0Efly0Ethrough0Eshows0Ebrain0Ein0Eamazing0Edetail0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

beezow doo doo zopittybop bop bop cordova demaryius thomas transtar 316 william daley truffles