64 million times more detailed brain images than before!
Never before has the brain of a mammal been observed in such detail! US scientists have developed a high-performance MRI machine that is 64 million times more accurate than current ones. It made it possible to map the entire mouse brain with micrometer resolution.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging test that analyzes soft tissues such as the brain, heart, or lungs. Thanks to it, doctors can detect anomalies such as cancers, but current MRI resolution does not make it possible to observe details smaller than the order of a micron.
Scholars Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy, Attached to the University of Tennessee in the US, it designed an MRI capable of providing images with a resolution 64 million times more accurate than conventional MRI. Used to immortalize the mouse brain, each voxel (the 3D equivalent of a pixel) in the image corresponds to a 5-μm region of the brain.
Resolution for microns
This work of art is made possible by the use of incredibly strong magnets, about 100 times stronger than the magnets in current MRI machines, and a computer that has the computing power of 800 laptops combined.
Thus, the scientists were able to map all the neural connections present in the young mouse brain. Ultimately, they hope to be able to advance research on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with this powerful new tool.
“Incurable web evangelist. Hipster-friendly gamer. Award-winning entrepreneur. Falls down a lot.”