Wednesday, April 2, 1997
RESEARCH:
Human Brain Project explores brain structure and functionBy
Kathryn Combs
Daily Bruin Contributor
While the Human Brain Project may sound like a freakish
laboratory experiment from some science fiction novel, UCLA
researchers say it could be some of the most important research to
determine the characteristics of a "normal" working brain.
Primarily funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the
Human Brain Project is a five-year pilot study that is examining
how realistic it is to develop a working map of both brain function
and structure.
Also termed the brain mapping program, this study aims to
develop a map of the brain by determining the relationship between
particular brain regions and their associated functions.
"(We are) trying to create an atlas of the brain by collecting
image data from normal subjects and devising a way to make them
comparable. Just as you and I look different, our brains look
different," said Dr. Arthur Toga, co-director of the UCLA division
of brain mapping.
Toga, who is also the director of the laboratory of
neuro-imaging, said that although making a physical map of the
brain may seem like a simple task, researchers have found
difficulty trying to analyze and compile the vast amount of
information they have gathered.
"Science typically narrows its focus so that you can control all
of the variables. (However) these problems are so immense that
we’ve had to bring in expertise from a variety of disciplines,"
said Toga.
"We’re collecting data from three sites across the country (to)
create realistic maps of the brain, which is a more sophisticated
approach," said Colin Holmes, who is a post-doctoral fellow and a
member of the team assigned to the Human Brain Project.
Paul Thompson, a fourth-year graduate student in the department
of neurology and also a member of the Human Brain Project team,
said that they have been working on the project with scientists
from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and McGill University,
in Montreal, Canada. Overwhelmed with data from three universities,
Thompson noted that trying to analyze all available data has been a
constant challenge, necessitating the development of cutting edge
technology.
In response to this, members of the brain mapping team have
developed their own computer programs to deal with the
computational tasks at hand.
"The technology that we use is quite advanced. I think that we
have one of the more sophisticated computer labs on campus because
of the demand of executing very complex algorithms rapidly," Toga
said.
"The computational task of the project that we are attempting to
do is huge," agreed Holmes.
To fund these developments, the program has recently awarded a
$1 million grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a
division of NIH, and the National Science Foundation, to purchase a
new supercomputer, scheduled to be delivered to UCLA labs this
coming June.
The brain mapping project aims to provide data stored in a
digital brain library in order to allow investigators and students
to learn about brain functions in both health and disease.
"There’s been a shortage of tools that can encode the
variability between subjects. (Our) goal is to find out whether
structural differences that you see in a brain image reflect a
diseased state or an ordinary individual representation," Thompson
said.
"One of the big successes of this program has been trying to
develop tools that detect abnormal brain structure," said
Thompson.
To overcome the challenge of gathering and analyzing such a vast
amount of data, a unique team of researchers, drawn from a variety
of fields, have joined this project.
"The folks that work with me are computer scientists,
mathematicians, physicists, anatomists, neurologists, you name it,"
said Toga, who is also a professor of neurology at UCLA.
"It’s very exciting because you get to see all ends of the
problem," said Holmes, commenting on working with such a diverse
team.
"You get to work with people in psychology, clinical medicine,
neurologists, and they’re all interested in … what (the data)
really means to the person’s psyche and the clinical ramifications
for the subject population of patients," Holmes said.
Holmes further explained that this project is unique, since no
similar brain mapping project has attempted to incorporate so much
data about both brain structure and function.
"There’s brain mapping going on all over the world that looks at
particular functions and particular structures," he said.
"But to bring it together all in one place and try to do a
meta-analysis … up until now it has never been possible."
CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin
Dr. Arthur Toga is one of the many researchers who is working on
the Human Brain Project.CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin
A brain map on display.