Computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey’s brain. By gaining an accurate 3D model of the brain’s network of neurons, medical researchers can better understand how the brain’s connectivity is disrupted in mental and neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and autism.

In the past, researchers would have to scan thousands of thin layers of a primate’s brain through a microscope in order to get a view of its neurons, the brain’s cells that transmit nerve impulses. The Utah team adapted an existing software platform called VISUS (Visualization Streams for Ultimate Scalability), which is primarily used to visualize weather or energy simulations.

To create images of a brain, researchers first use a method known as CLARITY that makes the brain tissue transparent by immersing it in special hydrogels. With the software, hundreds of 3D blocks of the brain are then scanned one at a time with a two-photon microscope; scientists can view the scans immediately as opposed to waiting for them to download.

The 3D model allows scientists to view areas and angles that cannot be seen as easily with 2D images. In this way, researchers can map out the individual neurons and their long tails, known as axons.

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