Understanding the inner workings of the human brain eluded scientists for many years, how and why it functions the way that it does. The movements and reactions in our day-to-day life may seem minuscule, but it is the key to unlocking answers in a new study being conducted in part by UC Berkeley. The recent study was conducted over five years, and its findings were accumulated into 17 different studies covering the mapping of brain cells and their pathways. To achieve this, scientists studied neurological signals from the central cortex of the brain to help them understand things like muscle movement, reaction time and vital motor function. Getting proper mapping was of the utmost importance so the cells were grouped by things like gene type, size, particle structure and gene marker. This study was done with hopes that therapies could be developed to assist with things like disabilities, brain disorders, and other illnesses. This presented a challenge because they had to find ways to merge the data in the clusters as it was found quickly as data was discovered.
While a full atlas of the human brain will not be completed in the near future, it is hoped that eventually diagnosing a person’s ailment or disease in the brain will be a matter of reference to this massive guide and be able to select the appropriate treatment. To help further understanding, groups of mice were used with certain gene therapies to understand cell growth, neurological movement and more. What this breakthrough could mean for the future of science and medicine, no one knows at this point, but it is hoped that better understanding of the human body and its inner workings is achieved. The evolution of medicine through the use of medical technology has broadened our knowledge exponentially in recent years, here’s hoping that similar breakthroughs continue to be discovered.
To read more about these efforts by UC Berkley, click here, here, and here.
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