2023-04-24 10:02:43
With MRIs, doctors can look at the brain, heart or lungs, and detect abnormalities like tumours. But the current resolution does not make it possible to visualize microscopic details, of the order of a micron. With the new MRI designed by scientists at the Duke’s Center, it is now possible to observe these small details that can make the difference in the detection of a disease.
High resolution
The researchers thus succeeded in producing a very detailed image of the brain of a mouse. Each voxel (abbreviation for “pixel volume”, 3D equivalent of the pixel) of the image corresponds to an area of the brain of 5 microns (0.005 millimeters), or 64 million times smaller than a voxel of a clinical MRI . To better understand this technological feat, some types of bacteria have a size of 1 to 5 microns, just like dust particles, which can reach a few tens of microns.
To get this image, the neuroscientists used a magnet about 100 times stronger than the one found in clinical MRIs. They also used a high-performance computer, the computing power of which corresponds to that of 800 laptops put together. The resulting image is the culmination of nearly forty years of work and research at the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy. The work presented shows how the connectivities of a mouse’s brain change as the animal ages. Another model highlights the deterioration of neural networks in the brain of a mouse suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Neurodegenerative diseases
Scientists believe that this technique makes it possible to visualize the connectivity of the whole brain at record resolution. They say the new knowledge from mouse imaging will lead to a better understanding of conditions in humans, such as how the brain changes with age, diet or with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. , Huntington or Parkinson.
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