What is Connectome Project?
The connectome project is creating a buzz in the psych world because of its possible outcomes. This is the type of project that has become the need of time because people have gathered around too much negativity without knowing it. Not only just that, but the connectome brain project can also easily be one of the best things happening in the modern psychological world. Here is what you need to know.
So, what is brain connectome anyway?
With an estimated 86 billion neurons connected by 100 trillion synapses, the human brain is an amazingly detailed network. A complete map of these connections—a wiring schematic of the brain—is known as a connectome. In simple words, the connectome is the wiring diagram of the brain.
When two neurons and brain cells are wired, and the parts of their cell bodies communicate with each other with their extracellular secretion and chemical reception then this is known as neurotransmitters. Two brain cells, or neurons, are “connected” together when the cell bodies communicate with one another part through their cellular secretion and chemical reception is known as neurotransmitters.
If you have ever observed the wiring diagram then you will see every connection of the 100 billman neuron. Thousands of connections are the result of neurons making connections with other neurons. The size and tensile strength of neurons that connect different parts of the brain are shown in a wiring diagram at the anatomical or tissue level.
A network of this magnitude cannot be mapped at the level of each neuron and connection with existing technology. Instead, scientists utilize methods like magnetic resonance imaging to examine the links between regions of the human brain that reach several millimetres and have thousands of neurons each. However, these connections are just created randomly. They are started, improved, trimmed down, and weakened when the fetus is being developed and by the time the person is living their life. They are controlled over the human development phase and are programmed to control responses, compute thoughts and calibrate movement.
While there are anatomical regions that exist to perform specific actions, the memory of an individual isn’t formed, recalled, or stored within the activity of a single region of the brain. There are some structures in the brain that play an important role in this regard but finding a certain memory from one particular area is simply impossible. In the broadest sense, memories exist in the entire connective structure which is known as the brain connectome.
The connectome contains a complete neuron of the network and the connections between them which are known as synapses. Some experts are agreeing on that an individual is their own connectome.
Will This Brain Connectome Project Be Worth Considering?
When we talk about the connectome project then it is expected that it could be helpful in finding the answers about the connection between behaviour and neurons. It is often asked professionals with the human connectome, what would be the most favourable results that one should expect, shall we be able to produce it?
Many of the experts, working on the project believe that the benefits would be way more surprising than expected. It would be much easier to create some effective therapies for neuroscientists for neurocognitive disorders such as autism and schizophrenia with brain connectome projects. Though it does require a thorough study and work to determine “HOW” there is still hope.
With the mapping of the white matter network in healthy patients, researchers involved in the connectome project will have a better understanding of what a normal scan looks like, Scientists will then be able to compare both the brain scans of patients, the healthy one and one with neurodegenerative diseases. This will help them to understand how these diseases affect a healthy brain.
The Human Connectome Project continues to be a work in progress, but it has already produced some fascinating findings. According to a study conducted by connectome scientists, which was published in the journal Science, the brain’s neurons are not structured in a chaotic tangle as some previously believed, but rather in a neat grid like a busy street map.
Bottom Line
The brain connectome project is gaining too much popularity among the neuroscience and psych communities and among the experts. However, a relatively huge number of different types of brains are still under study via brain imaging data to understand the cognitive abilities connected to certain parts of the brain to help create solutions for terminal neuro diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’, Autism and schizophrenia. If the study goes on, we can expect some really great results in near future.
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