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Wellcome Image Awards 2016 Brain Rain
02 May 2016

Brain Rain

One way to spot The Invisible Man would be to send him out in the rain – patterns left by the water falling against his body would be a total giveaway. Researchers are using a similar principle to study human brains. Individual bundles of nerve fibres are invisible to many brain imaging techniques, yet here they are – traced out in rainbow colours in this human brain model. A technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) watches water sloshing around the brain, recording how its motion changes when falling against, or running down, nerve bundles in different brain regions. Modelling these tiny changes in water current with a technique called tractography reveals nerves bundles linking the left and right sides of the brain (red), the front and back (green) and running bottom to top (blue) – otherwise invisible patterns that can be used to specifically compare healthy and injured brains.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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