New Views of the Brain [Slide Show]
Scientists are charting the paths of individual neurons as well as the activity of individual genes
By W. Wayt Gibbs
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Neuroscientists have been mapping the physical anatomy of the human brain for over a century, but until recently researchers lacked a clear and comprehensive picture of which genes are used frequently and which are largely dormant in the myriad parts of this complex organ.
In 2012 a team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle published the Allen Human Brain Atlas, which includes data on the activity of almost every gene at hundreds of locations inside the brains of five men and one woman. For comparison, the team had earlier produced an atlas of the mouse brain. The databases for these atlases, along with a viewer application called Brain Explorer, are freely available online.
This slide show presents some of the images developed by the Allen Institute in its studies of how the brain works in humans and mice. For more information on the Institute’s work, see “Genetic Maps of the Brain Lead to Surprises,” by Ed Lein and Mike Hawrylycz.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
