Brain images just got 64 million times sharper thanks to new turbocharged MRI scans — and experts hope it will lead to progress toward a cure for dementia
This is the most detailed image ever made of a brain – 64 million times sharper than current technology allows.
The picture was taken of a mouse brain using a powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device with an unprecedented level of detail.
Scientists have yet to replicate the highly detailed scans of human brains, which in the future could help doctors detect diseases earlier and allow patients to survive longer.
They hope that the mouse scans will pave the way for breakthroughs in the treatment and progression of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s..
The ultra-detailed MRI was able to capture images so detailed that each voxel, or 3D version of a pixel, measures five-thousandths of a millimeter, 64 million times smaller than we’ve seen before. Photo courtesy of the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy
Scientists were able to produce the rainbow-colored look in the neural networks of mice of different ages and genetic makeups using extremely strong magnets
A team of researchers from North Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Indiana used a powerful MRI scanner that delivers the sharpest, most detailed images and reveals the intricacies about a mouse brain’s organization and connectivity.
The scientists produced MRI scans that were a whopping 64 million times clearer than is currently possible in hospitals.
While MRI scans are crucial for diagnosing potentially deadly conditions such as brain tumors, they cannot currently go into microscopic detail.
After performing an MRI scan of a mouse’s brain in minute detail, scientists produced another image using a method known as light-field microscopy. This allowed the team to visualize the internal structure and connections in the brain in technicolor detail.
The scans have only been performed on mice so far, but the scientists behind the innovation are optimistic that the technology could be integral to tracking age-related changes in the human brain, potentially leading to new groundbreaking treatments.
The team was led by researchers from the Center for In Vivo Microscopy at Duke University and is the culmination of four decades of research.
The colorful scans show changes in the brain’s connections as it ages. They also illustrate how specific parts of the brain – such as the memory-related subiculum – change more than the rest of the mouse brain.
The report with the findings of the scans has been published in Procedures of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. G. Allan Johnson, the lead author of the new paper said: ‘It’s something that really makes possible. We can look at neurodegenerative diseases in a completely different way.’
An MRI uses magnets and radio waves to make scans.
The scientists were able to produce the rainbow-colored look in the neural networks of mice of different ages and genetic makeups using extremely strong magnets, much stronger than those typically used in an MRI machine.
Most machines used in the US use 1.5 to 3 Tesla magnets. Tesla is the unit of measurement of the total magnetic field passing through a given area and the higher the Tesla score, the stronger the magnet.
The researchers behind the latest scans used a 9.4-Tesla magnet and a special set of gradient coils that are 100 times stronger than those found in clinical MRI machines.
To help generate the brain image, they used a powerful computer equivalent to nearly 800 laptops all working at once to image one brain.
After they completed the MRI scan, scientists performed light field microscopy on the brain tissue sample, which allowed them to label specific groups of cells in the brain and track them for changes or progression of neurodegenerative disease over time.
The images could also capture how Alzheimer’s disease breaks down neural networks.
The applications of the powerful MRI technology could be extensive, enabling doctors to diagnose cancer and neurological disorders before it is too late.