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Thunder Enlightening
03 October 2014

Thunder Enlightening

This brightly-coloured zebrafish brain highlights a challenge for cutting-edge biomedical research – new technologies can capture more and more information, but making sense of it all is often daunting. A sudden movement in front of this fish’s eyes caused genetically-engineered sensors in its neurons [brain cells] to light up with patterns of activity. Interpreting this sensorimotor response inside millions of neurons required a cluster of power computers. Here a new software package, called Thunder, reveals distinct patterns of activity highlighted in different colours, with the brightness of each of the neurons (coloured blobs) showing the strength of its response. Recording simultaneous (but different) patterns of activity in brain regions such as the optic tectum (green) and lateral hindbrain (pink) with light-sheet microscopy was vital to this improved picture of how the brain works – but so too were the analytical methods used to make sense of such big data.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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