Google recently completed a detailed mapping of a small segment of the human brain, encompassing 1 cubic millimetre of brain tissue. This effort has produced what Google claims is the “largest, most detailed map of the human brain yet.” Despite achieving high-resolution insights, the researchers encountered several mysteries, including spontaneously entangling neural ‘wires’. To further comprehend these phenomena and gain deeper insights into mammalian brains, Google is going to look inside the mouse brain, here’s why.
The Shift to Mouse Brain Mapping
Google’s research arm is embarking on a new project to map the mouse brain, as announced in a recent blog post. This study aims to address fundamental questions about brain functions, such as memory storage and retrieval, object and facial recognition, the necessity of sleep, and the origins of brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Viren Jain, a researcher at Google, mentioned the lack of sufficient data as a major barrier to answering these complex questions. The human brain consists of approximately 86 billion neurons, connected by over 100 trillion synapses. Over a decade ago, Google initiated the Connectonomics team to tackle the monumental task of mapping these connections, creating a “connectome”—a term coined by Google for a comprehensive map of neural connections.
Why Focus on the Mouse Brain?
Given the immense challenge and the prohibitive cost and time required to map the human brain’s connectome at the nanometer scale—potentially requiring analysis of up to a zettabyte of data—the researchers have opted to study the mouse brain instead. This decision is also facilitated by partnerships with prestigious institutions like Harvard and Princeton, focusing on the mouse hippocampus, which shares significant similarities with the human brain and comprises about 2-3% of its total mass.
The hippocampus is crucial for functions such as memory encoding, attention, and spatial navigation. Despite the mouse brain being 1000 times smaller than that of a human, the endeavor to map it remains a formidable technical challenge.
Potential Outcomes and Impact
If successful, this project could result in the largest biological dataset ever collected from a single mouse brain connectome, estimated at 20,000-30,000 terabytes. It would also mark the first time a part of a mammalian hippocampus has been mapped at such a detailed level, potentially offering unprecedented insights into both normal brain functions and pathological states.
This initiative by Google not only underscores the technological advancements in brain research but also highlights the ongoing quest to unravel the complexities of the brain’s inner workings, which could have profound implications for the treatment of neurological diseases in the future.
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