New brain atlases will unlock mysteries of the human mind

Sapolsky's book Behave reads like a kind of map of the human brain, and gives really clear articulations of the function of parts and the behaviour that results. I read that book and ever since I think about it when I'm having a hard time with a UI problem or a relationship problem. It's like an operating manual for your own human self. If there was visuals alongside, that would be wonderful.

This approach is really interesting as it connects to function, since the mapping is done molecularly (ie, which genes are activated in any given cell). Previous methods to categorise cells by morphology and electrical activity patterns also roughly correlate to function, but this should be able to give us better insights about which pathways to manipulate.

Do you believe that the lack of detalization is what stopps us from understanding the mind/brain?

> scientists have revealed highly detailed atlases of the brain - published in a suite of 21 papers on October 12 [link at the bottom of this post] [...] These new studies ... part of the US-led BRAIN Initiative ... connecting brain anatomy with cell function ... tackle how our brains operate at a cellular level ... at various scales - from genes, to cells, to cellular structures, to larger brain regions, and finally the brain as a whole [Content found as sparse in the submitted article]

> The BRAIN Initiative aims to present its first complete atlas of the mouse brain in early 2024, with the human brain to follow in later years

Further (much more detailed and organic) information at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03192-2

> Researchers have created the largest atlas of human brain cells so far, revealing more than 3,000 cell types — many of which are new to science [...] this is the first atlas of the whole human brain at the single-cell level, showing its intricate molecular interactions

Press release from Salk Institute at https://www.salk.edu/news-release/a-new-era-in-brain-science...

> Researchers ... analyzed more than half a million brain cells from three human brains to assemble an atlas of hundreds of cell types that make up a human brain in unprecedented detail

> Every cell in a human brain contains the same sequence of DNA, but in different cell types different genes are copied onto strands of RNA for use as protein blueprints. This ultimate variation in which proteins are found in which cells—and at what levels—allows the vast diversity in types of brain cells and the complexity of the brain. Knowing which cells rely on which DNA sequences to function is critical not only to understanding how the brain works, but also how mutations in DNA can cause brain disorders and, relatedly, how to treat those disorders

> In 2021, Ecker and Behrens led the Salk team that profiled 161 types of cells in the mouse brain, based on methyl chemical markers along DNA that specify when genes are turned on or off. This kind of DNA regulation, called methylation, is one level of cellular identity. // In the new paper, the researchers used the same tools to determine the methylation patterns of DNA in more than 500,000 brain cells from 46 regions in the brains of three healthy adult male organ donors. While mouse brains are largely the same from animal to animal, and contain about 80 million neurons, human brains vary much more and contain about 80 billion neurons

> At the same time, the researchers also used a second technique, which analyzed the three-dimensional structure of DNA molecules in each cell to get additional information about what DNA sequences are being actively used. Areas of DNA that are exposed are more likely to be accessed by cells than stretches of DNA that are tightly folded up

Original package of articles at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0913

No, they won’t. It’s just more hype and blind faith in technology.