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How does the brain work? What's the connection between genes and neurons? How do you translate the electrical bits of brain activity into complex thoughts and emotion? How does consciousness arise? These are some of the big questions being touched upon today in Seattle at the Allen Institute for Brain Science's symposium on "Open Questions in Neuroscience."
The institute was founded in 2001 by software billionaire Paul Allen to help generate the data required to fuel discoveries about the brain. Since then, more than 100 staff researchers have generated more than 1 quadrillion bytes of brain image data (OK, a petabyte). The images show sections of mouse brains (adult and developing) as well as primate brains and yes, human cadaver brains.
"They have to be fresh," Allan Jones, the institute's chief executive officer, told the symposium during its opening session. "There's a lot of timing issues for the normal human brain."
Atlases of the brain
All that brain imagery has fed into a series of brain atlases, documenting how genetic data match up with functional areas of the brain. Thousands of researchers can use that publicly available database for their own work in neuroscience — and some of the leading researchers in the field are in Seattle this week for the symposium.
I'll be filing quick updates from the symposium today, along with the occasional Twitter tweet, from my seat in an auditorium at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum — another institution that Allen established in Seattle. David Anderson, a neurobiologist at the California Institute of Technology, said that the setting was apt, considering how much was known about the correlations between basic brain chemistry and complex mental phenomena such, as the way we respond to music.
"Our level of understanding of this process is such that any attempt to explain to explain it in mechanistic terms is really an exercise in science fiction," he joked.
The circuitry of fear
Nevertheless, Anderson and his colleagues are building up stores of science facts, in part by drawing upon the brain atlas database. For example, Anderson explained how his lab is unraveling the chemistry and biology behind fear, and its suppression. Scientists have known for a long time that an area deep within the brain, known as the amygdala, is somehow central in the fear response. But it's been difficult to tease out exactly how the amygdala's chemical circuitry works.
"The results have become fuzzier rather than clearer," Anderson said.
The Allen Institute's mouse brain atlas helped identify the different cells that composed the central area of the amygdala. Armed with such data, Anderson's team was able to trace the "microcircuits" that suppressed the expression of conditioned fear. Cells known as PKC-delta neurons play a key role, by sending out chemical signals to other cells and blocking the response.
Figuring out how those cells interact with other types of neurons in the amygdala could eventually lead to the development of more targeted anti-anxiety drugs, Anderson said. Neuroscientists don't have the full story yet, but what they've learned so far is giving them confidence that the circuitry of fear will someday be untangled.
Stay tuned for more from the "Open Questions in Neuroscience" symposium as the day goes on. Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto."
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Considering many commenst that come from brains at cosmic log, YES, big questions do exist.
comments, not commenst
I can't describe how it makes me feel to see a new synapse come into being. Maybe, if I had a few more, I would be able to tell you...
This Is Your Brain, This Is Your Brain On Football
I would love to have someone do an in depth study on my brain (or whats left of it).
Dr Amen did a 3 day evaluation on me last October and stated he would rate me as 80% disabled due to my 9 NFL caused emergency VP Shunt brain surgeries since being injured while playing DT for the SF 49ers in 1981. Unfortunately I run my own environmental consulting business, and have a family with 3 kids to support, so really don't have the time to be disabled at this point in my life. (I just turned 52 and will be disabled soon enough).
After mega doses of Dr Barry Sears Omega Rx (fish oil) and 40 Hyperbaric oxygen treatments, I returned to Amens clinic last July for additional microcog testing and SPECT scans. I improved up to 700% on some of the memory exams, and my SPECT scans were markedly improved. Am now on treatment # 16 of my second round of 40 Hyperbaric oxygen treatments and have not felt this good, or clear headed, in decades, and my anger management issues have subsided tremendously. I actually wake up in the morning and remember some, or most of the things on my agenda for the day. Doesn't sound like much to normal human beings (as I call those who never played), but huge for me.
I am currently coordinating directly with Dr Ellenbogen, the NFL's new head of Head, Neck and Spine Injury Group, on rule changes to better protect players in the NFL (see below), and would like to see it implemented nationally at all levels. My first, and one of my most severe concussions, occurred during my 3rd year of Pop Warner at age 13. I knocked myself unconscious in a tackling drill and was hospitalized. We need to educate parents and coaches, and protect the young athletes in all sports (more concussions occur in soccer than any other sport). The earlier an athlete is concussed, the lower the threshold for the next concussion.
I am also trying to get hyperbaric oxygen chambers in or near every stadium, including high schools. Studies have proven a concussed athlete placed in a chamber w/in 4 hours of injury, can return to full 100% cognitive functioning w/in 24 hours, as opposed to being out 2 - 3 wks. The NFL owners don't give a damn about the human carnage, but I can show them how to save money by getting players back on the field quicker so it should get their attention. My real reason is to protect players by reducing inflamation of the neurons, which ultimately die. Early death of neurons causes early onset of dementia in ex NFLers. Many are suffering dementia and Alzheimers like symtoms in their 30's, 40's and 50's. I am currently taking Arricept and Namenda (both Alzheimers meds) for my lack of short term memory, and still trying to function as a wildlife biologist.
I played on 6 championship teams during my 12 years of football, from Pee Wee Pop Warner, to a Hall of Fame undefeated high school team, to the 77 Orange Bowl while at Colorado, and a member of the 49ers first Super Bowl championship team and my son will never play.
For a look at the consequences of not addressing concussions (and other injuries such as undiagnosed compression fractures in my C6, C7 and S8 vertebrae) properly, go to the following links:
Sac News and Review Cover story
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1317643
NPR: A Brain, A Life, Battered by Football
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114059228#commentBlock
Visger Rules – Recommended changes to NFL Rules 071810
http://davepear.com/blog/2010/07/george-visgers-concussion-rules/
George Visger Interview on KCAA Sports Parade 071210 Regarding NFLPA Poor care of retired players
www.kcaaradio.com and go to the Sports Parade...
CNN – Concussions, Visger
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/05/concussions.visger.football/index.html?iref=allsearch
Keep up the good work keeping people informed.
George Visger Brain Damaged Wildlife Biologist/Motivational Speaker Visger & Associates Environmental Consulting
SF 49ers 80 & 81 (Super Bowl) Survivor of 9 NFL Caused Emergency VP Shunt Brain Surgeries Benefactor of ZERO NFL Benefits