High-resolution whole-brain staining for microscopic circuit reconstruction

http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.3361.html

by jessriedel • 11 years ago

14 1 11 years ago

entee• 11 years ago

This kind of study is very cool, but not without some controversy. There's some debate whether knowing how everything connects to everything else at a single neuron level is as informative as we once hoped, because the brain seems to be quite plastic. These connections could change physically but have little effect on the outcome. Also, these are electron microscope images, meaning staining for specific receptors on the neuronal surface can be challenging. This is a problem because that's one clue as to whether a neuron is amplifies or suppresses incoming signals.

That said, these technical issues are not insurmountable and I think that having a map of all the streets, even if you lack sign posts and road markings is really cool and is bound to at least give us some insights.

High-resolution whole-brain staining for microscopic circuit reconstruction

Related Stories