Human Connectome Project
The Human Connectome Project is a scientific funding program under which the National Institutes of Health have been supporting research into nerve connections in the healthy human brain with a total of almost 40 million US dollars since September 2010 . The entirety of these connections is called a connectome in this context . As part of the program, special imaging processes will be further developed over a period of five years and an extensive database of healthy adult test subjects will be built up.
Participating research groups and project structure
Washington University and University of Minnesota
The first project group is led by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota , Twin Cities . It consists of a total of 33 collaboration partners who work at the University of Oxford , UC Berkeley and Indiana University Bloomington , among others . The main task of this subproject will be to examine the brains of 1200 healthy adult test subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Here, especially coming functional MRI and diffusion imaging to a prominent role, as these conclusions about the brain activity and the course of large nerve fiber bundles allow.
The measurements are carried out on specially adapted MRI scanners. The necessary technical principles will be developed up to and including spring 2012; a first data set was presented to the public in January 2012. In order to be able to examine the relative influence of genetic and environmental influences on the human connectome, 300 identical pairs of twins and their "normal" siblings are recruited as volunteer test subjects for the second phase . In addition to the MRI recordings, some of the subjects are also examined using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG). In addition, the genome of all test subjects is sequenced and certain motor , sensory and cognitive tests are carried out.
The resulting database will be made accessible to the global research community via an online platform. It should enable new insights into the natural variability of nerve connections in the human brain, as well as their causes and effects. A longer-term goal of this research is to be able to diagnose diseases of the brain more reliably and to treat them more effectively through a better understanding of the healthy human connectome. This part of the project is funded with a total of 30 million US dollars.
Massachusetts General Hospital and UCLA
A second team, consisting of scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard University in Boston and the University of California, Los Angeles , is concentrating on the further development of Diffusion Spectrum Imaging , a special variant of diffusion imaging that collects particularly extensive data. A new type of MRT scanner is intended to achieve higher image resolution and shorter measurement times than was previously possible. A part of the test persons of the first project team is to be examined for a direct comparison with the improved procedure. This part of the project will receive approximately $ 8.5 million in funding over a three-year period.
Web links
- The circuit diagram of the thinking machine. Article by Jan Dönges in Spektrumdirekt from March 18, 2011
- Official website of the NIH Human Connectome Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by the National Institute of Mental Health on September 15, 2010
- ↑ First public release of 3T Connectom scanner data! , Online communication from the Human Connectome Project, published January 10, 2012
- ↑ Project overview ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the official Human Connectome Project website, accessed February 6, 2012.
