Summary: Researchers have created a 3D map of the developing keyboard mind, offering a powerful, high-resolution view of mental structures during fetal and post-natal stages. This new application makes it possible for researchers to study how brains cells, such as GABAergic cells linked to neurological disorders, develop and communicate with one another.
The map serves as a reference point for studying developmental disorders and advancing science research by integrating MRI and mild sheet luminescence microscopy. The atlas, which is accessible website, gives users a direct link to this crucial resource for brain research.
Important Facts:
- A 3D map depicts the development of the head in mice at seven different stages.
- The map tracks GABAergic cells, essential in diseases like autism and schizophrenia.
- It offers a gratis, engaging tool for researchers to explore neurodevelopment.
Origin: Penn State
A team of researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and experts from five various universities have created a 3D map of developing mice’s brains using cutting-edge scanning and imaging techniques.
This new map serves as a common research and neurological platform that will aid researchers in studying developmental disorders and understanding brain development. It provides a more powerful, 360-degree view of the entire mammalian brain as it develops during the embryonic and quick post-natal stages.
They published their work today ( Oct 21 ) in , Nature Communications.
Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine and senior author on the paper, said:” Maps are a fundamental infrastructure to build knowledge on, but we do n’t have a high-resolution 3D atlas of the developing brain.
We are creating high-resolution maps to show how the mind develops naturally and what occurs when a mental condition develops.
Geographical maps are a collection of drawings that give an in-depth see of the landscape of the Earth, including boundaries between nations and regions, features like mountains and rivers, and roadways like roads and highways. Interestingly, they provide a common knowledge that helps users identify certain locations and comprehend the spatial relationship between different locations.
Similar to how head atlases can be used to study brain structures. They aid in understanding mental framework, function, and connectivity by illustrating how the brain is organized geographically. Recently, scientists have been limited to 2D histology-based images, which makes it difficult to perceive anatomical areas in three dimensions and any changes that may happen, Kim said.
Whole brain imaging techniques, which allow researchers to view the entire brain at a high resolution and create large-scale 3D datasets, have made a lot of progress recently. To analyze this data, Kim explained, scientists have developed 3D reference atlases of the adult mouse brain, which is a model for the mammalian brain.
Researchers can overlay various datasets and perform comparative analyses using the atlases ‘ universal anatomical framework. However, there’s no equivalent for the developing mouse brain, which undergoes rapid changes in shape and volume during the embryonic and post-natal stages.
Without this 3D map of the developing brain, we are unable to combine data from new 3D studies with existing spatial models or perform consistent analysis, Kim said. In other words, the absence of a 3D map prevents neuroscience research from progressing.
The research team created a multimodal 3D common coordinate framework for the mouse brain across seven developmental stages, including four developmental milestones during the embryonic period and three periods during the immediate postpartum. Using MRI, they captured images of the brain’s overall form and structure.
They then employed light sheet fluorescence microscopy, an imaging technique that enables visualization of the whole brain at a single-cell resolution. To create the 3D map, these high-resolution images were then matched to the shape of the brain’s MRI templates to create the high-resolution image. The team gathered mice’s male and female samples in one place.
The team concentrated on GABAergic neurons, which are nerve cells that play a crucial communication role in the brain, to demonstrate how the atlas can be used to analyze various datasets and track how individual cell types emerge in the developing brain. This cell type has been implicated in schizophrenia, autism and other neurological disorders.
GABAergic neurons are found in the cortex, the most extreme region of the brain, but little is known about how they develop throughout the entire brain, according to the researchers.
What happens when something goes wrong may be crucial to understanding how these clusters of cells develop in normal circumstances.
To facilitate collaboration and further advancement in neuroscience research, the team created an , interactive web-based version , that is publicly available and free. The goal is to significantly lower technical barriers for access to this resource by researchers from all over the world.
” This provides a roadmap that can integrate a lot of different data — genomic, neuroimaging, microscopy and more — into the same data infrastructure. It will drive the upcoming brain research revolution being led by artificial intelligence and machine learning, Kim said.
Other Penn State College of Medicine authors on the paper include: Fae Kronman, joint degree student in the , MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program, Josephine Liwang, doctoral student, Rebecca Betty, research technologist, Daniel Vanselow, research project manager, Steffy Manjila, postdoctoral scholar, Jennifer Minteer, research technologist, Donghui Shin, research technologist, Rohan Patil, student, and , Keith Cheng, distinguished professor, department of pathology.
The paper also included contributions from Nicholas Tustison of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Ashwin Bhandiwad and Lydia Ng from the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Choong Heon Lee and Jiangyang Zhang from the University of Pennsylvania, Jian Xue and Yingxi Lin from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Luis Puelles from the University of Texas, and Yuan-Ting Wu, who was formerly research scientist at Penn State and is currently project scientist at Cedar
Funding: The National Institutes of Health’s grants RF1MH12460501 from the , Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ( BRAIN ) Initiative, R01NS108407, R01MH116176 and R01EB031722 supported this work.
About this research on brain development
Author: Christine Yu
Source: Penn State
Contact: Christine Yu – Penn State
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” Common coordinates for developing the brain of mice” by Yongsoo Kim et al. Nature Communications
Abstract
Common coordinates for developing the brain of mice
Important tools for understanding the spatial organization of the brain are 3D brain atlases, which promote interoperability across a variety of studies. The lack of developing mouse brain 3D reference atlases, in contrast to the adult mouse brain, prevents advances in understanding brain development.
Here, we present a 3D developmental common coordinate framework ( DevCCF ) spanning embryonic day ( E ) 11.5, E13.5, E15.5, E18.5, and postnatal day ( P ) 4, P14, and P56, featuring undistorted morphologically averaged atlas templates created from magnetic resonance imaging and co-registered high-resolution light sheet fluorescence microscopy templates.
An interactive 3D web-visualizer allows the DevCCF to be downloaded or explored in 3D anatomical segments. We use the DevCCF to demonstrate the emergence of GABAergic neurons in embryonic brains as a use case. Moreover, we map the Allen CCFv3 and spatial transcriptome cell-type data to our stereotaxic P56 atlas.
In summary, the DevCCF is a publicly accessible resource for integrating multiple studies ‘ data to improve our understanding of brain development.
