November 19, 2010

Mouse Cortex Array Tomography Journey


This gives me pause, for wonder, for thought, for admiration. How complex the brain of a mouse. How marvellous. And how inscrutable. I can't help but wonder at the work of neurologists and neuroscientists who try to plumb and understand these depths.
I read about people fearing that we will soon have implants that read our thoughts and act on them - it seems impossible, with so many different connections and pathways to analyze, that anyone can design such a system for more than one person - it would have to be so finely tuned.
We still don't understand the effect of antidepressants or the impact of the meds we take for our MS, and sometimes it just seems unreasonable that we shouldn't understand these things, until you see something like this, and realize it's a bit like understanding the universe, or the effect of atoms and nanoparticles and black holes and iron deposits and inflammation and anger and love and chocolate.
It's astonishing that we have come so far. A credit to that complex, intense thing, our brain.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We're so glad you appreciate our work! The brain is truly an object of awesome complexity... There's even better video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jziqfFp9Rq0! -Nick Weiler