The ambition Brain Atlas Project

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have started an ambitious project to build a brain atlas. According to neuroscientist John Ngai, the goal is to create a catalogue of different brain cells. "The human brain contains about 80 billion neurons, nerve cells. And of the neurons we suspect there could be hundreds, if not thousands of types of distinct types of those cells, but until recently we really haven’t had a way of categorizing or classifying those cells in a quantitative or rational way." But why do researchers need this mapping tool? "In order to understand how the brain processes information and gives raise to things like cognition, emotion, we really need to know what different parts are." Ngai also hopes this atlas will help scientists understand brain cells’ connections well enough to launch new therapies for treating cognitive and neurological diseases.

You can listen to The ambition Brain Atlas Project online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The ambition Brain Atlas Project is an episode from UC Science Today by UC Science Today.

This episode is 00:00:58 long.

This episode was published on Jan 2, 2018.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from UC Science Today when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.