(Press-News.org)
A new “atlas” developed by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and the University of Pittsburgh will increase precision in measuring changes in brain structure and make it easier to share results for scientists working to understand neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
The tool, the Duke Mouse Brain Atlas, combines microscopic resolution, three-dimensional images from three different techniques to create a detailed map of the entire mouse brain, from large structures down to individual cells and circuits.
“This is the first truly three-dimensional, stereotaxic atlas of the mouse brain,” said G. Allan Johnson, PhD, Charles E. Putman University Distinguished Professor of Radiology at Duke. He is also professor in the Department of Physics and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Stereotaxic roughly means “in life,” or that the atlas accurately represents the brain as it appears in a living mouse, with external landmarks that can guide experimental procedures.
The atlas is needed because different types of imaging have their own pros and cons, Johnson said. Some can provide a high-resolution view of single brain cells, but that view is distorted by the tissue preparation and scanning, making it difficult to compare results to those from others’ work. “The atlas provides a common space to which many different types of data can be registered so that it’s correctly oriented and undistorted,” he said.
The details are reported April 30, 2025, in the journal Science Advances.
Other Duke authors of the study are first author Harrison Mansour, a programmer/analyst in the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy, and Leonard E. White, associate professor in neurology.
Anyone can download and use the atlas in a range of open-source display packages. “Grade school students can appreciate the beauty of the brain, and neuroscientists can obtain much more accurate measures of brain changes,” Johnson said.
For instance, researchers are currently using the atlas to follow neurodegeneration in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and environmental exposure to toxic metals and pesticides.
To create the atlas, the researchers started with MRI, using diffusion tensor imaging to capture three-dimensional images of five postmortem mouse brains at the highest resolution ever reported (15 microns), Johnson said. Imaging strategies and hardware developed over the past 40 years at the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy allowed the researchers to capture these images at a resolution 2.4 million times higher than clinical MRIs.
They then merged these images with microCT scans of the mouse skull to pinpoint key “boney landmarks.” Finally, they removed the brains from the skull to allow the use of light sheet microscopy to map cells in the same space.
“The combination of all three methods, at the highest spatial resolution in the same space, provides one of the most comprehensive maps of the mouse brain ever developed,” Johnson said.
END
Fish are masters of coordinated motion. Schools of fish have no leader, yet individuals manage to stay in formation, avoid collisions, and respond with liquid flexibility to changes in their environment. Reproducing this combination of robustness and flexibility has been a long-standing challenge for human engineered systems like robots. Now, using virtual reality for freely-moving fish, a research team based in Konstanz has taken an important step towards that goal.
“Our work illustrates that solutions evolved by nature over millennia can inspire robust and efficient control laws in engineered systems,” said first author Liang Li from the University of Konstanz. Co-author ...
A new study, led by Peter Søgaard Jørgensen from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, reveals that while global cooperation remains essential, countries have more power than previously believed to reduce antibiotic resistance through effective domestic interventions. Currently only a handful of countries are taking sufficient action.
The study is the first to assess the level of government intervention needed to improve the worsening situation on antibiotic resistance across 73 countries. The researchers find strong associations between the level of action a country reports and whether antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance increased during a ...
A type of virus thought to be a ‘mere curiosity’ is plentiful in one common bacteria, and possibly others, a Monash University-led research team has found.
The discovery improves understanding of how viruses work and could mean this particular virus is also common in other types of bacteria.
Published in Science Advances, the study looked at bacteriophages (phages), which are viruses that infect bacteria and come in many forms.
In particular, researchers investigated telomere phages, a ...
In a landmark achievement for fusion energy, ITER has completed all components for the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system.
ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion—the power of the sun and stars—as an abundant, safe, carbon-free energy source for the planet.
The final component was the sixth module of the Central Solenoid, built and tested in the United States. When it is assembled at the ITER site in Southern France, the Central Solenoid will be ...
Scientists have discovered, for the first time how root cells respond to their complex soil environment revealing that roots actively sense their microenvironment and mount precise, cell-specific molecular responses. The findings could help the development crops that are resistant to climate stress.
In a study published in Nature, an international team of plant scientists and engineers from the University of Nottingham have worked with teams in the USA and Belgium. The team used cutting-edge spatial and single-cell transcriptomics to compare rice roots grown in conventional gel-based media with those grown in heterogeneous natural ...
Seattle, WASH.—April 30, 2025—An experiment seven years in the making has uncovered new insights into the nature of consciousness and challenges two prominent, competing scientific theories: Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). The findings were published today in Nature and mark a pivotal moment in the goal to understand the elusive origins consciousness.
IIT suggests that consciousness emerges when information inside a system (like the brain) is highly connected and unified, for as long as the information is consciously perceived, acting as a single whole. On the other ...
About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, commercial nontobacco nicotine use in U.S. 10th and 12th graders shifted from 2023 to 2024, marked by a doubling in nicotine pouch past-30-day use, an increase in pouch plus e-cigarette dual use, and a decrease in exclusive e-cigarette use. Prioritizing surveillance, regulation, and prevention addressing pediatric nicotine pouch use warrants consideration.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Adam M. Leventhal, PhD, email adam.leventhal@usc.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit ...
About The Study: Exposure to high levels of smoke pollution was associated with an increase in hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in this cohort study. These findings underscore the need for interventions to mitigate the health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rachel C. Nethery, PhD, email rnethery@hsph.harvard.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.7956)
Editor’s Note: Please ...
Mount Sinai researchers have identified for the first time the neural mechanisms in the brain that regulate both positive and negative impressions of a social encounter, as well as how an imbalance between the two could lead to common neuropsychiatric disorders like autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia. The study, published April 30 in Nature, also describes how activating a serotonin receptor in the brain of a mouse model ofASD restored positive emotional value (also known as “valence”), with encouraging implications for the development of future therapies.
“The ability to recognize and distinguish unpleasant from pleasant interactions ...
The use of nicotine pouches — small, easily concealed sachets of nicotine and additives that are placed between the gum and lip — nearly doubled among U.S. high school students between 2023 and 2024, according to a new USC study.
The research, involving surveys of more than 10,000 teens from around the country, appears in JAMA Network Open.
“This growing public health issue needs more attention. Like flavored e-cigarettes when they first emerged, use of this new oral nicotine product is becoming more widespread, particularly among adolescents,” said ...
