The cerebral cortex was much more complicated than we used to think.

Scientists have prepared the first full map of connections in the cortex of the human brain, which helped them to identify more than a hundred previously unknown corners of the nervous system responsible for speech, vision and movement, according to an article published in the journal Nature.

"The brain is absolutely not like computers that can support any operating system and run any type of program. Speaking in computer terms, the “software” of our brain, how the brain works, is tightly connected with its structure — its hardware.. If we want to understand what this “software” is capable of, we need to understand how different parts of the brain are arranged and connected with each other, ”said David van Essen from the University of Washington in St. Louis (USA).

Van Essen and his colleagues have been working for more than six years to uncover the secrets of the human brain in the framework of the Human Connectome Project. As part of this project, the total budget of which is 38.5 million dollars, scientists are exploring the brain of 1.2 thousand adult volunteers, including 300 pairs of twins.

One of the main goals of this project is the mapping of links between different parts of the human cortex of the human brain, the most complex part of it, which is responsible for the work of memory, self-awareness, human ability to articulate speech, emotions and other complex behavioral responses.. The cortex consists of a large number of layers of nerve cells that are connected to each other and to other regions of the brain with hundreds of millions of connections.

By combining the data collected over the past four years since the launch of the project, Van Essen and his colleagues prepared the first full-fledged map of the cortex, which turned out to be divided into 180 separate sections, which differ from each other in functions, physiological properties and what regions of the brain they are connected to..

The first maps of the cortex, compiled at the beginning of the 20th century by the German neurophysiologist Corbinian Brodmann, indicated that there were only 52 regions in it, some of which were subsequently associated with speechlessness, hearing, vision and other human abilities. The Human Connectome Project has shown that there are actually four times as many of them, including sites associated with higher nervous activity..

Scientists hope that a new map of the cerebral cortex, compiled with the help of modern technologies, will help scientists identify and thoroughly study those areas that are responsible for articulate speech and other unique human traits that had hardly been studied before, and understand what distinguishes us from other primates.

The most unusual feature of this study was its openness - all the data and research methods, as scientists promised, will be published in open form on the global network and on 200 pages in the journal Nature, whose leadership, as if joked by van Essen, was not immediately persuaded to the publication of such a "talmuda".

Source: ria. ru http: // vitaportal. ru.

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