THE PATHWAYS TO BEAUTIFUL IDEAS NOW

Our thoughts are the result of data traveling along neural pathways. We formulate ideas and reach conclusions based on the way data enters our sensory system, mingles, and gets interpreted.

The Human Connectome Project is all about mapping these pathways to get a better understanding of connectivity in the human brain. It uses advanced MRI technology and techniques.

The 5-year Project, initiated in July 2009, is being executed by a diverse group of scientists from several universities, led by Kamil Ugurbil, PhD, director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota. Washington and Oxford Universities are major partners in the work.

Getting this all done is a complex matter. It involves developing new techniques and tools for image acquisition and image reconstruction, through a collaboration between the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Data analysis, visualization, storage, and distribution, are all huge projects in their own right because of the vast amounts of data under management.

Higher magnetic fields yield more spatially and functionally accurate signals, corresponding to the actual area of neuronal activities. 

With a large subject pool of 1,200 people, including many sets of twins and sibling, the Project is looking at consequences of genes vs. the environment in populations. 

The massive data set is publicly available, so there are many opportunities to ask many different questions.

To read an overview of the consortia, see the NIH Blueprint Human Connectome.

Read more about Beautiful Pathways, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Baby, Tonight We’re so Beautiful Now!

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project.White matter fiber architecture from the Connectome Scanner dataset.
2. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. MRI Scan of Human Brain.
3. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. MRI Scan of Human Brain.
4. Image: by Neda Jahanshad. Brain Mapping of the Elderly Human Connectome.
5. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. White matter fiber architecture from the Connectome Scanner dataset.
6. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. White matter fiber architecture of the brain.
7. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. White matter fiber architecture of the brain.
8. Image: by John Van Horn. Interconnected Brain.
9. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. HARDI, Axial View.
10. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. White matter fiber architecture of the brain.
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12. Image: Courtesy of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project. White matter fiber architecture from the Connectome Scanner dataset.