My contribution to science. In a scanning room at the Martino Center for

Biomedical Imaging in Boston, Massachusetts, I lay on my back on a slab, my

head resting in an open plastic box. I had offered myself as a guinea pig to

neuroscientist Van Weydeen and his colleagues who were now going to scan my

brain. A white plastic helmet was lowered over my face and the slab slowly glided

into the scanner tube. The magnets that surrounded me began to rumble and beep.

For an hour I lay still, eyes closed and tried to remain calm in the narrow

scanner. It wasn't easy. To suppress feelings of panic, I breathed smoothly and

transported myself to places in my memory. At one point I recalled walking my

nine-year-old daughter to school through the snow and as I lay there I reflected on

the fact that all my thoughts and emotions were the creation of the 1.3

uncomfortable scanning procedure, was part of reporting on the stunning

advances in understanding the human brain. Weydeen, who is at the forefront of

brain imaging, creates in unprecedented detail representations of the brain's

wiring. My brain scan was the first step in creating an image of my own brain but

I would have to make a second appointment to see the final product. On my return

called diffusion spectrum imaging translates radio signals given off by the

brain. What I saw was a map of the nerve fibers that form hundreds of thousands of

pathways carrying information from one part of my brain to another. Weydeen had

painted each path a rainbow of colors so that my brain appeared as an explosion

of colorful fur like a psychedelic Persian cat. Mapping the brain cutting

edge techniques for mapping the brain are giving researchers greater access to

of individual nerve cells or neurons. Others chart genes that interact with

those neurons. Still others, Weydeen among them, work on revealing as much of

the brain's vast neural network as they can. Jeff Lichtman and his colleagues at

Harvard University are creating extremely detailed three-dimensional images of

neurons, revealing every bump and stalk branching from them. They begin by

thousandth the thickness of a human hair. An electron microscope is then used to

take a picture of each layer and the images are put in order using a computer.

Slowly a three-dimensional image is built, one that the scientists can explore as

if they were in a tiny submarine. Everything is revealed, says Lichtman.

The problem is that even a mouse brain is unbelievably complex. Lichtman and his

colleagues have managed to recreate a piece about the size of a grain of salt.

Its data alone is equal to the amount of data in about 25,000 high definition

we think about them, says Lichtman. When asked if his method could be used to scan

an entire human brain, which contains a thousand times more neurons than a mouse

brain, Lichtman says with a laugh, I don't dwell on that. It's too painful. When and

if Lichtman completes his 3D portrait of the brain, it will reveal much, but it

will still be only an exquisitely detailed sculpture. Living neurons, on the

other hand, are full of active genes that are integral to brain function. Researchers

at the Allen Institute in Seattle, Washington have developed a method for

recently deceased people are scanned using a powerful MRI scanner. This scan is used

for reference as a kind of 3D roadmap. The brain is then sliced into sections so

thin that they are nearly invisible, and the slices are mounted on glass. Finally,

chemicals are applied to reveal the active genes in the neurons. So far, the

researchers have mapped the brains of 6 people. It's a huge amount of data, and

they've only just begun to understand the genetic landscape of the brain. The

scientists estimate that 84% of all the genes in our DNA become active in the

adult brain. Certain combinations of genes are activated by neurons to carry

out important tasks in different locations. The secret to certain disorders

may be hiding in these complex networks, as certain genes shut down or switch on

abnormally. Of all the new ways of visualizing the brain, perhaps the most

remarkable is one invented by neuroscientist Carl Dyseroff and colleagues at

Stanford University. They have found a way to make a mouse brain as transparent as

glass, allowing researchers to see inside the brain while it is still intact. The

technique involves replacing the naturally occurring substances in the brain with

different pathways of connecting neurons. You don't have to take it apart to show

the wiring, says Dyseroff. It's not easy to dazzle neuroscientists, but Dyseroff's

method, called clarity, has left his colleagues awestruck.

Wadine has called the research spectacular unlike anything else in the

field. Dyseroff's ultimate goal is to make a human brain transparent, a far more

difficult task. Not least because a human brain is 3000 times larger than that of a

mouse. He anticipates that clarity may someday help patients with autism or

before we can affect treatments that I tell people don't even think about that

yet. It's just a voyage of discovery for now. Connecting brain with machine. For

the most part, brain research has yet to change how doctors treat patients. But

there is one line of research, brain machine interfaces, where the mapping of

the brain has started to change people's lives. At 43 years old, Kathy Hutchinson

suffered a massive stroke, leaving her unable to move or speak. Lying in her bed

didn't know if she was brain dead or still aware. Her sister asked Hutchinson if she

could understand her, and she managed to answer by moving her eyes up as a

signal. It gave me such a relief, Hutchinson tells me 17 years later, because

move or speak, she communicates by looking at letters on a computer screen. A

camera tracks the movement of a tiny metal disc attached to the center of her

eyeglasses, thanks to a system developed by Brown University neuroscientist

John Donahue. Donahue wanted to find a way to help people with paralysis by

using signals from the brain's motor cortex, the area where signals to move

muscles originate. He spent years developing such a device, testing it on

working with human patients. Surgeons inserted the device into Hutchinson's

motor cortex. After she had healed from her surgery, the researchers plugged in

wires to send signals from her brain to nearby computers. The computers

recognized the signals and used them to move a computer cursor around a screen.

Hutchinson quickly learned to use it. It felt natural, she says. So

natural that one day, she reached out for a cup of coffee, grabbed it, and brought

it to her lips to drink. Kathy's smile when she put down that drink? That's everything,

Donahue says. Today, Donahue and other scientists are building on that success,

University, Miguel Nicolas has gotten monkeys to control full-body exoskeletons

using methods similar to those that help Hutchinson. Eventually, brain implants

will become as common as heart implants, says Nicolas. Predicting the future is a

tricky game, however, and advances in the past have inspired expectations that

remarkable new stage.

Today Donoghue and other scientists are building on that success, hoping to create human-machine interfaces that will be powerful, safe, and easy. At Duke University, Miguel Nicolelis has gotten monkeys to control full-body exoskeletons using methods similar to those that helped Hutchinson. 'Eventually brain implants will become as common as heart implants,' says Nicolelis. Predicting the future is a tricky game, however, and advances in the past have inspired expectations that have not been met. But it is clear that current research is moving neuroscience to a remarkable new stage.