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The most detailed map of the brain to date has been made public by researchers from the University of Sydney. Important details regarding the brain region in particular were discovered by the map. There are still many unsolved mysteries surrounding the brain, the organ that allows us to think, feel emotions, and store memories. More information than ever before has been mapped out of the brain, which scientists are learning about every day.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered the communication network in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory and navigation. The generated map displayed routes in the nervous system that are composed of white matter and define communities of neurons.
The brain regions that the scientists claim are directly connected to the hippocampus and play a significant role in memory formation are displayed as a map in the above figure. The map also produced a startling finding in relation to the hippocampus. He noticed that the hippocampus has fewer connections to areas of the frontal lobe of the brain that are involved in decision-making, memory, and appraisal tasks on the map. The areas of the brain that processed visual information had the most connections.
While being defined as “surprising,”, especially in light of the hippocampus’s function, this was not at all unexpected. Dr. Marshall Dalton provided the following explanation of this circumstance at the start of the study:
This makes sense given that the hippocampus is crucial for memory as well as imagination and the ability to visualize objects in the mind’s eye.
While aiding in our orientation, the hippocampus also permits us to mentally visualize a location we’ve already visited. So the hippocampus is also involved when thinking about a location you’ve been to before.
The “Human Connectome Project,” which is run by the US National Institutes of Health, used MRI scans of several brains to generate the map. When these data were processed using specialized techniques created for research, connections between every region of the brain became clear.
The map is anticipated to aid in the fight against diseases like Alzheimer’s that damage memory.
