2023-06-10 14:02:24
About the episode
Our brain areas are connected by billions of very thin nerve fibers. But mapping those connections is very difficult. They are sometimes packed closely together and can become entangled.
Nevertheless, researchers in Delft, together with colleagues in Germany and the US, have now succeeded. These kinds of structures in the brain are already being looked at with – now some difficult terms – dMRI and small-angle X-ray scattering. Now Miriam Menzel of TU Delft shows that a third technique she developed: scattered light imaging, performs even better.
How it works: They shine light through hair-thin brain slices from different angles and analyze the patterns created by the scattered light. So they don’t take a picture of neurons or synapses, but look at how they are wired. And that is precisely what is important to understand how the brain functions and what can go wrong.
SLI, as the technique is called for short, has a higher resolution and is cheaper and faster than the other techniques. Measurements can also be carried out with a simple LED lamp and camera. This makes it suitable, among other things, as an easy-to-use portable system.
The team now plans to apply SLI to other types of fibers, such as muscle and collagen fibers, and to increase the area of tissue that can be studied.
Read more about the research here: New light on highly intertwined nerve fibers in the brain.
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