Research is under way to create a road map of our minds—the connectome.
Just as the Human Genome Project aimed to draw our genetic map, the Human Connectome Project will map “the complete, point-to-point spatial connectivity of neural pathways in the brain,” according to Arthur W. Toga and colleagues of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. The work is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
The human nervous system’s 100 billion neurons form functional connections that enable us to sense, think, and act. The project will help researchers to better understand normal variation in brain development and to chart genetic influences on neurological and psychiatric diseases, such as autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sources: Neurosurgery, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Human Connectome Project Web site www.humanconnectome project.org.