A group of international researchers announced Thursday they have successfully created an ultra-high resolution three-dimensional (3D) human brain map by assembling images of thousands of brain sections from a deceased 65-year-old woman.

The 3D program, described in the journal Science, for the first time shows the brain anatomy in microscopic detail at a spatial resolution of 20 microns, smaller than the size of one fine strand of hair. Researchers claimed that it's 50 times more detailed than any other atlas available today.

Known as BigBrain, it's "the first ever brain model in 3D which really presents a realistic human brain with all the cells and all the structures of a human brain," senior author Karl Zilles, professor at the Julich Aachen Research Alliance in Germany, said in a press teleconference.

Using a special tool called a microtome, Zilles and his colleagues in Germany and Canada carefully cut the wax-covered brain from the deceased woman into over 7,400 slices at 20- micrometer thickness.

The sections were then mounted on slides, stained to detect cell structures and finally digitized with a high-resolution flatbed scanner so researchers could reconstruct the high- resolution 3D brain model.

"The BigBrain is a source for new research," said Zilles, "So we can do questions which cannot be addressed to previous brain models because these questions require a resolution at the cellular level."

According to the researchers, the fine-grained anatomical resolution will allow scientists to gain insights into the neurobiological basis of cognition, language, emotions and other processes. It will also help scientists better understand certain disease pathologies and inform drug development.

"This completely changes the game in terms of our ability to discriminate very fine structural and physiological properties of the human brain," commented co-author Alan Evans, a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Canada.

To advance research in the neuroscience field, BigBrain is being made freely available online to scientists around the world, the researchers said.

Source: Xinhuanet