Digital 3-D atlas of brain reveals tiny details

Digital 3-D atlas of brain reveals tiny details

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have a new brain atlas to help them study their favorite organ. It’s a digital, three-dimensional model called “BigBrain.”

Its resolution is finer than a human hair, so it can reveal clusters of brain cells and even some large individual cells. It is being made available to scientists around the world.

To make the atlas, researchers sliced a cadaver brain from a 65-year-old woman into 7,400 thin sections, stained them to reveal tiny features, and scanned each one. Then they used computers to combine the scanning data into a 3-D digital model.

The researchers, from Germany and Canada, reported their work Thursday in the journal Science.