A new three-dimensional, whole-brain model provides an unprecedented level of detail of the brain and its connections. Can it be used to study autism?
 

Researchers have sliced a human brain into more than 7,400 slivers, and stained and scanned them to create ‘BigBrain,’ the most detailed three-dimensional map of a human brain to date, they reported 21 June in Science.

People who show strong autism traits tend to have weak connections between an area of the brain involved in introspection and social memories and other brain regions, according to a study published 5 April in PLoS One.

The brains of people with autism are structurally different from those of controls, with more folds and a thicker cortex in certain regions, according to two studies published in the past few months.

Advanced imaging techniques may reveal more precise pictures of how of the brain’s regions communicate with one another. How much of the neurodevelopmental riddle of autism lies in these tracts?

New techniques to scan the brain can produce exquisitely detailed views of white matter, which contains the long cellular fibers that connect neurons. Many of the advances are emerging from the Human Connectome Project, a five-year push to map the brain’s wiring.

The brainstems of children with autism are smaller than average, but reach sizes similar to those of controls by age 15, according to a two-year imaging study published 22 April in Behavioral Brain Research.

A new rat study suggests that baby brain scans should be interpreted with caution. Unlike scans of adult brains, the study says, baby brain scans may show changes in blood flow that do not necessarily reflect the activity of neurons in the region.

A new microscopy technique, published in the May issue of Nature Methods, can show the activity of more than 80 percent of the brain’s neurons at one time.

The odds that the average new neuroscience study’s findings are actually true are about 50-50, according to a report in the May Nature Reviews Neuroscience.