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CLARITY opens window to brain circuitry, new era for neuroscience
Science NationThe connections between neurons in the brain are involved in everything we do, and no one's pattern is the same. Imagine the medical breakthroughs if we understood more about the brain's circuitry, but a milky opaque tissue that coats much of the human brain has clouded our view--until now. With support from the National Science Foundation, neuroscientist and psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth and his multidisciplinary team at Stanford University have developed a new imaging technology that essentially makes the brain transparent. They chemically dissolve the opaque tissue in a post-mortem brain, and in place of that tissue, they insert a transparent hydrogel that keeps the brain intact and provides a window into the brain's neural structure and circuitry. They can then generate detailed 3-D images that highlight specific neuronal networks.
Credit: National Science Foundation
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