Wrapped Up

Exploring the brain’s most sophisticated functions, such as generating thoughts, is an arduous task, requiring ever more advanced imaging techniques. A new method, based on genetically-modifying neurons to fluoresce, enabled the precise reconstruction of the connections of three neurons in the mouse brain (pictured). One of these (in cyan) appears to have projections encircling the whole outer layer of the brain, or cerebral cortex. All three originate in the claustrum, a sheet of cells present in mammalian brains, receiving inputs from many regions of the cortex. This area is thought to integrate all sorts of sensory information, such as sights and sounds, but some researchers go further, suggesting that it could be responsible for concept formation and consciousness. The wide-ranging connections made by single claustrum neurons provide some support for such a complex function, but much more work is needed to solve this enduring mystery.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image from the group of Professor Christof Koch, Allen Institute for Brain Science
• Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA
• Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group, March 2017
• Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, February 2017