Soon, 3D brain models to study memory structures

Researchers have created a new method that allows them to create 3D models of memory-relevant brain structures.

Accordingly, Dr Martin Pyka and his colleagues from the Mercator Research Group have developed a method which facilitates the reconstruction of the brain's anatomic data as a 3D model on the computer.

This approach was quite unique, because it enables automatic calculation of the neural interconnection on the basis of their position inside the space and their projection directions.

Deploying 3D models, the researchers use this technique to monitor the way neural signals spread throughout the network time-wise. They have, for example, found evidence that the hippocampus' form and size could explain why neurons in those networks fire in certain frequencies.

In future, this method might help them understand how animals, for example, combine various information to form memories within the hippocampus, in order to memorise food sources or dangers and to remember them in certain situations.

The study is published in the trade journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.