![]() One of its goals is to find new treatments for brain disorders. The atlas project is funded largely by the National Institutes of Health as part of its BRAIN Initiative, which was launched a decade ago by President Obama. HAMILTON: In ways that suggest humans' language abilities are the result of a different wiring, not different brain cells. But Bakken says in those species, scientists found subtle differences in the brain areas that humans use to process language.īAKKEN: What we found in this study is that there really is a conserved set of cell types that we share with chimpanzees and gorillas, but the gene expression has changed in those cells. HAMILTON: Those specializations are present in primates like chimps and gorillas, whose brains were also mapped as part of the atlas project. ![]() TRYGVE BAKKEN: We share kind of a basic plan with mice, but we see specializations in primates that we don't necessarily see in a mouse. Trygve Bakken of the Allen Institute says humans have some specialized cells for processing visual information that mice don't. HAMILTON: And already, the atlas is offering a way to see how the human brain differs from animal brains. LEIN: But it really has set the stage to show that this is a definable system. Lein says the atlas in its current form amounts to a first draft. LEIN: When you do that with these types of neurons, it looks a bit like a Rorschach test. Lein says the name describes what these highly complex cells look like when they're represented in two dimensions instead of three. Researchers expect to find even more types of cells, and they don't fully understand some of the ones they've already found, like splatter neurons. HAMILTON: The atlas still isn't finished. LEIN: You can use this map to understand what actually happens in disease and what kinds of cells may be vulnerable or affected. HAMILTON: Lein says the atlas also offers a way to study conditions ranging from Alzheimer's to depression. Ed Lein of the Allen Institute for Brain Science is one of several hundred researchers who worked on the project.ĮD LEIN: We really need this kind of information if we're going to understand what makes us unique as humans or what makes us different as individuals, or how does the brain develop. Together, the papers map out the location, structure and function of at least 3,000 types of brain cells. JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: The atlas arrived in the form of more than 20 research papers in three different scientific journals. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on a new atlas cataloging more than 170 billion brain cells, cells that allow us to walk, talk and think. ![]() Scientists are one step closer to understanding the human brain.
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