Scientists Create Atlas of Human Brain

Article found here.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle has created an “atlas” of the human brain that maps genetic activity across the brain.  The atlas, using a 3D rendering system, uses colors to show regions of the brain with high gene expression and regions with low gene expression. The Allen Institute has successfully compiled the map for two middle-aged male brains, and plan to use them “as a baseline against which they and others can compare the genetic activity of diseased brains.”  The low gene regions and higher gene regions tend to correlate to the region of the brain; the cortex shows more gene activity than the brain stem, and the regions of the cortex that correlate to a certain function also showed a distinct gene coding pattern.

I found this article interesting for several reasons; first, I never thought that gene activation was organized throughout the brain but rather as a cellular process, and because it answered questions due to genetics involvement with brain activity while asking new questions for potential brain research.  Also, the brain atlas findings contrasted with previous facts of the brain, such as the difference between the left and right hemisphere in function while the atlas shows no distinct change in gene activity between the two sides.  Overall, the brain-gene activity atlas is an innovative new way to study and possible cure neurological and psychiatric conditions.