Brain Art: Neurons or Pollock?
Science originates from the proto-indo-european word root skē̆i- which means to cut, split, separate. Living up to the name, scientists separate signal from noise to help explain how the world functions. Neuroscientists, more than their brethren, observe their subject of study - the brain - from a distance. The brain is powerful machinery and we need to better understand the nitty-gritty of its engines before we can meddle. Just like you take a photo of something precious for posterity - in case it gets lost or destroyed if you touch it, scientists also take photos and render visualizations of the brain circuitry. The imagination of neuroscientists compensates for garbled evidence and helps connect the dots during brain renderings. Augmented by computational techniques, these visualizations of the brain are so outstanding that they qualify for modern art displayed at The Centre Pompidou.
I am fascinated by the brain and its inner workings. Since sharing is caring, I’m introducing a different lens for looking at the brain: the artistic lens. For your enjoyment, I’ve collected below a select number of neuronal renderings that showcase the quick evolution of our understanding of the brain. South African biologist and Nobel Prize winner Sydney Brenner once said, “Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries, and new ideas—probably in that order.” Based on the high-fidelity brain renderings obtained at the beginning of this year, we are on a solid path to new breakthroughs.
Early 20th century: A Purkinje neuron drawn by Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience and the first person of Spanish origin to win a scientific Nobel Prize. The Purkinje neurons are some of the largest neurons in the human brain.
1993: Golgi-stained sections of middle frontal gyrus showing growth of pyramidal neuron soma and dendrites. The normal newborn has sparse neural circuitry, and then, with increasing age, there is a tremendous increase in the complexity of neural circuitry that is illustrated by the great increase of dendritic arbors from birth to 2 years. Source: Courchesne and Pierce.
1997: Purkinje neuron in a mouse brain slice, imaged with two-photon microscopy. Image from Denk & Svoboda, Neuron.
2007: Purkinje neurons play an essential role in motor function. Here the Purkinje neurons reach their arbor-like dendrites into the molecular layer of the developing cerebellum of a mouse. The mostly green cells at the bottom left are cerebellar granule cells, which relay information from the nervous system to the Purkinje neurons. Source: Livet et al
2014: Multiphoton microscopy of horizontal section of rat brain, imaged with ZEISS Axio Imager.Z2 Source: Flickr
Micro-etching rendition of the brain by Gregg Dunn. Source: Greg Dunn
2020: Three groups of neurons control when zebrafish larvae explore (left), stay put (centre) and switch between the two states (right). Source: J. C. Marques et al./Nature
2020: The latest achievement in the field of connectomes maps some 25,000 neurons in a fruit fly’s brain, a portion of which are shown above. A connectome is a comprehensive maps of the neural connections in the brain. Source: Google / FlyEM
