Connectomics Could be the Key to Everything!

Why is This Science So Important? 🧠

Connectomics will give doctors new information so they can understand different neurological diseases better; it will help them figure out new ways to treat those diseases as well. This science will give researchers and health care professionals even more information, specifically, about different mental health disorders. After imaging your brain, they would be able to compare those scans to other brains and find the differences. This could give your physicians what they‘ve been looking for to give you a diagnosis and treatment options.

Knowing exactly how the human brain works will give us so much power as a species; being able to understand every single part of ourselves whether it’s how our bodies functions or why our personalities are the way they are. Our brain's job is to regulate all of our thoughts, feelings, and decisions. That’s why connectomics is such an important science. Having this information at our fingertips will give us the stepping stones needed, so we can understand who we are as humans just that much better. The weird thing is, we really only have a vague idea of how each part of the brain is wired… that’s it.

Neurons

Our brain is made up of approximately 86 –100 billion neurons. A neuron’s shape is not like other cells. It looks less like a circle or rectangle and more like a spider web. Although neurons are all shapes and sizes they all have three parts in common: a cell body, axon, and dendrites.

Cell Body:

• Also called a soma
• Carries genetic info.
• Maintains structure
• Provides energy to carry out the function

Axon:

• A long tail-like structure
• Joins the cell body at the axon hillock junction
• Insulated with myelin (a fatty substance)
• Myelin helps to conduct electrical signals

Dendrites:

• Like roots that branch out from the cell body
• Receives and processes signals from the axon of different neurons
• Multiple sets of dendrites are called dendritic trees

Connectomics Fast Facts

• Connectomics is the process of mapping every single neural circuit, and their connections, in the brain.
• Scientists use computer-assisted imaging, like electron microscopes, to get the best images of those neural circuits.
• Connectomics marries together industrial and biological sciences🧠💍💻

What’s the imaging process like?

Scientists take about a cubic millimeter of brain tissue and just in that cubic millimeter there are about 100,000 neurons. In this grain-of-sand-sized piece of brain tissue, there are about 1 billion connections!! Just to put things into perspective a little bit more, those 1 billion synapses (or connections) could be unraveled into a length equivalent to about 4 kilometers.

That little grain of sand has to be sliced into 25,000 different sections. These scientists have to be so precise that most use a minuscule piece of diamond to slice everything up. This piece of diamond is filed down so that the very tip is only about 5 atoms wide. Once the slices have been created a picture is taken of each one. This is where computers come in. Each cross-section is analyzed and the different synapses are color-coded; and it ends up looking a little like this.

After identifying specific neurons and circuits, scientists begin to build up a realistic representation of the shapes and structures that make up those circuits. This allows them to slowly build up a realistic representation of the shapes and structures of those circuits. Once they animate one circuit they have to do it again and again until they are finished with every single one.

The Final Product

This image to the left is an example of what the animation might look like partially into the reconstruction process (when mapping out the cubic millimeter of brain tissue). The hope is to have a map of the circuitry in the entire human brain. That end result would probably look something like the brain-shaped pompom at the top of this article. Having access to this kind of information will open up so many doorways for the medical and scientific community.

MRI Technologies

As of right now, scientists are also trying to develop MRI technologies to map someone’s live connectome. Currently, it’s not as exact as the imaging process that animates every synapse, but at least you can get a personalized mapping without needing your brain sliced up! Physicians will still be able to view a patient's connectome in live brain tissue. It will provide doctors with the ability to view a unique connectome.

Everyone's brain is wired just a little bit differently, that could be why some of us struggle with mental illnesses while others don't. Your brain wiring has an effect on your everyday life and how you function as a human being. So the opportunity for doctors to view a patient’s live brain circuitry (even if it’s vague) will give them even more information about their patients.

Why is This So Exciting?

One of the most common mental illnesses, depression, is also one of the most diverse. There are so many different types of depressive disorders, which means that different parts of the brain are affected. As someone who has struggled with mental health before, I am ready to learn more about how any mental health conditions are impacted by environmental factors and/or genetics. Connectomics will provide us with that information. If the cause of a disorder is genetic than maybe several generations of a family have the same exact miswiring in their brain. This will provide us with a vast variety of new information about so many different neurological disorders. Connectomics also has the potential to help so many people that struggle to find a diagnosis for their disease. Maybe they’ll finally be able to have some closure.

Key Takeaways

• Connectomics is the science of mapping a brain's exact neural circuitry 🧠
• A very small sample of brain tissues is imaged; the “wires” in that section are animated on a computer to give researchers a clear picture of each synapse.
• The hope is to be able to have a map of an entire brain’s neural network, although this process is long. Scientists hope to be able to map your individual neural network.
• This will revolutionize the way we treat mental health. It will provide doctors with images that can lead to quicker diagnoses and better treatment plans.
• Overall connectomics will give us a better understanding of why were are the way we are, and who we are as individual people.

Hi! I’m Sophia Kokoszka and I’m an innovator at The Knowledge Society. I am very interested in learning everything about the brain (especially mental health), and genetics 🧬 🧠.

Feel free to contact me: sphkokoszka@gmail.com