Caris McKee-Shell
What is the Human Connectome Project and where can it lead?
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. With around 90 billion neurons (cells to receive sensory input) and 150 trillion synapses (spaces between cells where messages pass), it contains some of the most developed and complicated structures that we, so far, can barely understand. The Human Connectome Project strives to further investigate the brain and specifically neural connectivity so that advances can be made in diagnosis and treatment.
The project was launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2009 with two main objectives - the first to further understand the connectivity in the human brain, and the second to establish how this connectivity changes and causes abnormalities in brain disorders. It collaborates mainly with the Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Martinos Centre for Biomedical Imaging to create more in depth images. The HCP developed high powered diffusion imaging scanners, with a higher resolution due to the ‘magnetically stronger copper coils called gradients’.
A person’s brain is said to be as unique as their fingerprint, making it even more difficult to interpret and dissect. The brain has three main parts - the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brainstem. The cerebrum is the front of the brain and is made up of grey matter (cerebral cortex) with white matter at the centre. It mainly controls movement, regulation of temperature, speech, judgement, reasoning, emotions and learning. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of grey matter, and has a large surface area due to the folds in the brain. This is then split into two hemispheres - the right hemisphere, which controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere which controls the right side of the body. The brainstem connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord, which carries messages to and from the brain to the rest of the body.
When scans are completed they show parts of the brain called white matter and grey matter. White matter is the subcortical, deeper tissues of the brain, containing very few cell bodies and is composed mainly of long range myelinated axons. This means that this is the part of the brain where learning and brain functions occur. Grey matter is the part of the brain that controls the movement of muscles, sensory perception, and emotions. Neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzeimer's) damage the grey matter and cause a loss of neurons.
Magnetoencephalography is the functional neuroimaging technique that maps brain activity by recording the magnetic fields produced naturally by electrical currents occurring in the brain. It is said that the individual differences in each person's brain defines their behaviour and emotions. This means that the connectivity of a ‘normal’ brain could be compared to that which suffers from a neurodegenerative disease, and explain a person's behaviour. This gives way for a further development in the treatment and early diagnosis of many neurological disorders.
This outstanding project has just finished its first stage of research, in which it looks at and investigates the minds of young people. Hopefully, if the HCP is successful, this will change the way we work in the field of neurology, and help to make developments into the future of our research, diagnosis, and treatment. This project has the potential to be revolutionary and to completely restructure how we treat neurodegenerative diseases. For diseases like Alzhiemer's and dementia, there is no cure. This has a major effect on people around the world, not just those suffering but for those who are surrounded by family with these diseases. A development, although expected to be years away, could help people in the future, and eradicate another life changing disease from our planet.
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