The speaker will be Dr. Katrin Deinhardt, Lecturer in Neuroscience, Centre for Biological Sciences, Southampton. The title for her talk is “Home of memories and more – discovering the wonder world of the healthy brain” Katrin will discuss some general facts and properties of the brain, and of “memory”, and talk about big challenges and recent advances in trying to understand it.

1. The wonderworld of the
healthy brain
Dr Katrin Deinhardt
University of Southampton

3. http://www.iflscience.com/categories/brain

4. Image courtesy of the National Institute on
Aging/National Institutes of Health

5. The human brain in numbers
• ~1.4 kg (~2% of the total body weight)
• 1011 (100,000,000,000) individual nerve cells
• 1014-1015 (1,000,000,000,000,000)
connections
• Estimates of storage capacity vary from 10-
1000 terrabytes
• In comparison: The entire collection of the US
Library of Congress is estimated at 10tb

6. Ramon y Cajal
The beginnings..

7. Current initiatives to explore the
(human) brain
• The Blue Brain Project:
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/
• The Human Connectome:
http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/
http://www.humanconnectome.org/
• The Brain Initiative:
http://www.nih.gov/science/brain/
http://www.kavlifoundation.org/brain-initiative

8. The Blue Brain Project
• Aim : building a virtual brain in a
supercomputer
• Challenge : each simulated neuron requires a
computing power equivalent to that of an
average laptop
• Benefit : the ability to simulate how changes
in one brain area affect the entire network

9. • Started in 2002
• Developed a realistic model of a rat cortical
column (a “building block” of the cortex;
~10,000 nerve cells) with ca 50 different
neuronal subtypes by 2006

10. The Human Connectome Project
• Aim : to generate a wiring diagram of the
living human brain (structural and functional)
• Challenge : to access the brain without
causing damage
• Benefit : to gain an understanding of pathways
underlying behaviour

11. • Since 2010
• 1200 healthy individuals
• Imaging techniques:
– hardwiring: resting functional MRI, diffusion
imaging
– function: functional MRI; MEG/EEG on 100
individuals
– general shape: structural MRI

12. Diffusion imaging
Images courtesy of: http://humanconnectome.org

13. Images courtesy of: http://humanconnectomeproject.org

14. Functional MRI: listening to a story
(yellow/red), and performing math
(blue/green)
Images courtesy of: http://humanconnectome.org

15. Structural MRI
Images courtesy of: http://humanconnectome.org

16. …put together:
Images courtesy of: http://humanconnectome.org

17. The Brain Initiative
• Aim : “To revolutionise our understanding of the
human brain”
“to accelerate the development and application
of new technologies that will enable researchers
to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that
show how individual brain cells and complex
neural circuits interact at the speed of thought”
• Challenge : Current technologies are limited
• Benefits : better basic understanding of brain
function to develop treatments for brain disease

18. • Launched 2013
• Promotes new technologies and
interdisciplinary research
(engineering, informatics, biology etc)
• Brings together initiatives such as the
connectome, the Allan Institute

19. “new technologies” – what can we do
today in model organisms?

20. Some commonly used model
organisms in numbers:
• C.elegans (roundworm): 302 neurons, ~5,000
synapses
• D.melanogaster (fruitfly): ~100,000
neurons, ~10,000,000 synapses
• M.musculus (mouse): ~71,000,000
neurons, ~100,000,000,000 synapses
• R.norvegicus (rat): ~200,000,000
neurons, ~450,000,000,000

21. Ramon y Cajal

22. Livet et al, Nature 2007
Imaging all nerve cells: The
“brainbow” mouse

23. “Clarity”
Chung et al, Nature 2013

24. Chung et al, Nature 2013

25. …and we can watch and manipulate
live: “optogenetics”
• Sensors: Chameleon (Ca2+), Mermaid (voltage)
• Manipulators: Light-activated channels switch
nerve cells “on” or “off”

26. So what is my specific interest?
To understand how
an individual nerve
cell functions:
working with large
distances and
complicated shapes

27. Long-range logistics: Transport

28. Local decisions:
to grow or not to grow?

29. Local decisions:
to grow or not to grow?

30. Finally…
…a great website for good “brain-related” info:
https://www.dana.org/
(also the neuroscience societies:
BNA, FENS, SfN)