[HN Gopher] Unfolding the Hippocampus
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       Unfolding the Hippocampus
        
       Author : rbanffy
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2021-08-03 12:16 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.westernu.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.westernu.ca)
        
       | techbio wrote:
       | Simultaneously and in parallel, is anyone MRI-scanning hundred of
       | generations a year of nematodes and fruit flies to build basic
       | physical correlations in neurology and genetics? Structurally,
       | much simpler and cheaper, biochemically very similar.
        
         | mattkrause wrote:
         | They're much, much too small for MRI[0], but we do know a crazy
         | amount about the structure of C. elegans: there's a complete
         | wiring diagram of all the physical connections between its 302
         | neurons, a fate map of the embryonic origin and final role of
         | every single cell, and so on.
         | 
         | [0] Each voxel (='volume element') in a "standard" MRI is cube
         | 0.5-1mm on a side. A C. elegans is about a millimeter long, but
         | only 100 um wide, so you could fit about a hundred into one
         | voxel. The resulting scan therefore wouldn't tell you much
         | spatially, though I suppose you could do spectroscopy if you
         | wanted to know what a worm was made of.
        
       | mrweasel wrote:
       | A little of topic, but does anyone know of an introduction to
       | working with MRI and neuro-imaging?
       | 
       | Getting basic information from things like DICOM files is easy
       | enough, but then the neuro-science and image processing stuff
       | starts and basically every tool assumes (rightfully so) that you
       | know the correct terminology to use them.
       | 
       | There are a few US based universities that have online courses
       | and training, for free, but those are typically not on demand and
       | all seat are take on the day registration opens.
       | 
       | I'm just looking something that will get me started on learning
       | correct terminology and basic image processing.
        
         | throwaway24124 wrote:
         | It's because these tools are all built assuming you're a
         | neuroscience researcher with access to an MRI machine. CONN is
         | a great tool and has some tutorials https://web.conn-
         | toolbox.org/tutorials but you really need to sit down with an
         | intro to neuroscience textbook to learn the terminology. I
         | don't think there's an easier way to get up to speed
         | unfortunately.
         | 
         | Also the Human Brain Project has a ton of fMRI data you can
         | download and play with, as well as a few brain atlases that are
         | incredibly useful https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/explore-
         | the-brain/ but to learn the terminology, you're still best off
         | buying an intro to neuroscience textbook
        
       | flerovium wrote:
       | It would be interesting to use this technique to:
       | 
       | 1. Map the topology of the brain (what the researchers have done
       | here)
       | 
       | 2. Run an MRI with IV contrast
       | 
       | 3. View the MRI "unwrapped" according to the topology
       | 
       | I suspect the topology can be composed with other current methods
       | that will make it much easier to identify regions of interest.
        
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