Pictures in Mind

Neuroscientists have an extraordinary challenge to see how the brain works. It functions so quickly and is so densely populated with neuron networks and their supporting cells, technology is not yet advanced enough to allow us to see everything at once. But new methods and technologies are constantly evolving; here’s an image of a whole Zebrafish brain caught in the process sending messages. Every bright spot in the picture is an individual neuron filled with calcium – an ion that floods into the nerve cell when it sends a message. This method enables researchers to see how the whole brain works together and see how the activation of single neurons add together in the larger network. With methods like this it could be possible to map the function of every neuron network in the brain, helping to pinpoint the cause of disorders like epilepsy or schizophrenia.

Written by Mary-Clare Hallsworth

Mary-Clare Hallsworth

Writer

Mary-Clare has a passion for communicating science from the inner workings of the brain to Victorian technology. She also enjoys getting messy creating hands-on science activities for education.

• Philipp Keller
• Misha Ahrens
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013; Published in Nature Methods 10, 413–420