Professor Jiang Tianchai talks about the present and future of human brain map research

human brain contains hundreds of cortical and lower cortical structures with different anatomical structures and functions, and it is often difficult to pinpoint these structures and to comparing their functions and connection loops. Fortunately, scientists have worked tirelessly to build an increasingly sophisticated brain map from the earliest to the present digitalization based on ionosome tissue. The human brain network map, published in 2016 in the professional journal Cerebral Cortex in the field of brain science, further increases the fineness several times. On the eve of the 12th National Conference of the Chinese Academy of Neuroscience, Springer said that the Chinese Academy of Neuroscience had been held. Nature interviewed Professor Jiang Tianchai, an internationally renowned scholar in this field, who introduced us to this new human brain map and discussed the development direction and use of human brain map research.history of human brain map research for more than 100 years. Early studies mainly used local information such as cell construction to map and divide different brain regions from the structure. The biggest difference between the human brain network map and these traditional maps is that it divides the brain region structure based on the connection pattern, focusing on the information about the brain connection. This new idea based on connection patterns greatly compensates for the lack of traditional brain maps in brain connection patterns.
, however, the journey is far from over for the study of the human brain's network map. Ultimately, we hope that these fine maps will "navigate" clinical surgery and achieve precise positioning in treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). More importantly, by continuously improving the fineness and accuracy of brain maps, we hope to use them to find biological markers of mental illness.
in this regard, the human brain network group diagram of the --- of the previous generation of magnetic resonance technology can be described as a bitter link. Although magnetic resonance technology has existed for more than 30 years, it has not yet been adopted by the clinical diagnostic standards of brain diseases, especially mental disorders. This may be due to the difficulties caused by the small size of the disease data and the existing rough brain map.
In view of this, in order to finally realize these applications, we propose three important development directions of the human brain network map: (1) based on a more detailed map to find the early diagnosis of different neuropsychemical disorders, prognosis judgment, evaluation of efficacy and other biomarkers; (2) To verify the functional loop of different regions of the map in the cognitive behavior of emotions, memory and so on on at different scales, to establish the brain function map, and (3) how to use the map of language, cognition and other related aspects to guide the establishment of a new computational model in brain-like research.
and the relationship between the map and the brain, there is much to be done, and the future will be a hot spot for research. At present, brain-like computing bottlenecks are everywhere, in addition to the use of concepts, brain-like computing can be said to be isolated. By analyzing the law of information processing of the human brain itself, the development of brain-like computing can be greatly promoted. For example, it has been found that the high-order interaction of neurons is indicated by second-order interaction in the process of human brain information processing, and in a sense, the so-called higher order is an illusion, which greatly reduces the complexity of brain-like computing and simplifies the design of architecture.
our next step is to construct the brain map of macaques on three different scales. (1) On the macro scale, the monkey brain is divided into different brain regions to establish a macro map similar to that of humans. (2) On the basis of the macro map of macaques, the connection map is constructed on the scale of neuron groups (or different types of neurons) by using classical beam tracer technology and new virus tracer technology, which is also our main goal in the next 5-10 years. In terms of fineness, this approach is much better than relying solely on magnetic resonance. (3) Construct a microscale map. But for now, we're a long way from that goal, because there's no better technology for building micromaps than electric mirrors.
the brain map of macaques by using invasive tracer techniques that cannot be performed in humans could help us understand the human brain map. In addition, by comparing the macro-scale monkey brain map with the human brain map, we can find similarity and similarity between the human brain and the monkey brain functional region connection map during evolution.
Jiang Tianchai as a link to the BMC Neuroscience journal of Section Editor: