Blue Brain Solves Neuroscience Problem

Recently a new research has been conducted which explains that how can the shape of neurons be classified with the application of mathematical methods from the field of algebraic topology. This has enabled the neuroscientists to start building a formal catalogue for all the types of cells that are present in the brain. Within this catalogue of cells, they can systematically put forth the function and role in disease of each and every type of neuron that is present inside the brain.

For about almost 100 years, scientists have been making an attempt to name cells. They have been describing them in the same fashion as Darwin has described animals and trees. With the help of this Blue Brain Project a mathematical algorithm has been developed that can objectively classify the different shapes of the neurons that are present within the brain. This enables the development of a standardized taxonomy [classification of cells into distinct groups] of all cells present within the brain, which will enable the researchers to compare their data in a much more reliable and efficient manner. The algorithm has the capability of distinguishing between the various shapes of the most common type of neuron in the neocortex -- the pyramidal cells. Pyramidal cells are more or less tree-like cells that constitute almost 80% of the neurons in the neocortex. On the other hand, the antennas, collect information from various other neurons in the brain. Practically, they are the redwoods of the forests of trees in the brain. They are excitatory, sending waves of electrical activity with the help of a network, as and when we perceive, act, and feel.The study from the Blue Brain is a proof of the fact that for the first time the objective classification of these pyramidal cells is possible, by application of tools from algebraic topology, that branch of mathematics which studies the shape, connectivity, and the emergence of global structure from local constraints. Blue Brain has developed the use of algebraic topology in order to face a wide range of neuroscience problems, and with the help of this study has yet again demonstrated its effectiveness. In collaboration with Professors Kathryn Hess at EPFL and Ran Levi from the University of Aberdeen, Blue Brain has generated an algorithm, which they used then in order to objectively classify seventeen types of pyramidal cells in the rat somatosensory cortex. The topological classification does not require expert input, and has been proved to be robust.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190321130415.htm