Synapses, neurons and brains

Idan Segev

Lesson #1
Brain excitements for the 21st century
 Kick start
Great thinkers think about the brain
How it (us) all started?
Brain Blossom worldwide
Structure of modern brain-research centers
The problem with understanding the brain
 "You, your joys and sorrows, your
memories and your ambitions, your sense
of personal identity and your free will are in
fact no more than the behavior of a vast
assembly of nerve cells and their
associated molecules"
(Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate 1962 the
father of DNA).

"Machine think? You bet! Were machines and we

think, dont we?"
(Claude Shannon the father of information age)
 The most
incomprehensible thing
about the world is that it
is at all comprehensible.

So what is the route to comprehend the brain?

 The start

Or

3.5 Billion years of life on earth

The Homo sapiens sapiens

&
The ~ 100 years old Human Brain Project
 3.5
300 Billion
500
200 Million
Million
Million years
years
years
years
200,000
70 Millionyears
years
Life begins -
Fish
Reptiles
Mammals Bacteria
Humans
Primates
The development of mammalian big brains
200 Million years - TODAY
 Modern Humans ~ 200,000 years & Cultural Evolution
1500 Understanding/rep
airing our brain
1400 Today

1300

Cultural evolution
Cell Phones, ICT

weight - gr
1200 Today

weight (gr)
1100 Modern Computers

BrainBrain
70 years
1000

900 Science
3,000 years
800
1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0
Million years Millions Language/Math
Millions of years ago 5,000 years

Culture explosion of Homo sapiens sapiens

Art
(60,000 - 30,000 ago)
1. Brain Blossom Worldwide

The Jerusalem Brain

(Norman Foster)
A view from the inside (of the brain)
 Structure of modern brain centers & central role of theory
(+ new curriculum for Leonardo da Vinci brain-researchers)

Neuroscience of
Neurological & cognitive
Disorders

Human & Primate

Behavior and Cognition

Plasticity & Developmental

Neuroscience

Computational
&
theoretical
Quantitative Analysis Neuroscience
of Neuronal circuits
The da Vinci generation of brain researchers

Neurobiology &
Psychology
Medicine

Theory/Modeling Computer Science

Applied Physics & Engineering

Perspective: Some new dramatic ($ billions) projects for the brain

1. Allen Institute Seatle, USA (Mouse/Human brain atlas recently new

focus on mouse vision)

2. Janelia farm DC, USA (Industrial scale Inst. for connecting network
level anatomy and physiology to s specific behavior)

3. EU Human Brain Project - EPFL, Lausanne Switzerland (ICT-based brain

research platform, integrating data and knowledge from different disciplines,
and catalyzing world-wide effort to achieve understanding of the brain,
propose new treatments for brain diseases and new brain-like computing
technologies) - Lesson #7.

4. President Obamas Brain Activity Map initiative (Creating revolutionary

tools to measure/stimulate millions or even billions or neurons
simultaneously)
 The BIG - difficult question: Meters

What does it mean To Understand the brain?

From molecules to behavior

Centimeters

Clearly - A THEORY is required to

explains how the brain ingredients Millimeter
s
(its anatomical units; its electro-chemical signals)
generate high level phenomena
Micrometers
(perception, action, emotions)

Nanometers
 Recent Brain-Excitements

1. Connectomics Complete 3D road-map for the brain

2. Brainbow Colorful, genetically-designed, brains
3. Brain-machine/computer interface (BMI)
4. Optogenetics Light-activated brain circuits
5. Computer simulation of the brain - Blue Brain Project
 Modern neuroanatomy
Mapping/visualizing the wiring diagram of the brain

Connecting fine structure to mental activities in health

and in neuro-psychiatric disorders
 Beginning of Modern Neuroscience Cellular Anatomy
The two giants: Camillo Golgi (Italy) & S. Ramon Y Cajal (Spain) Nobel Prize 1906

Using Golgi staining method

Very small % of cells stained

S. Ramon Y Cajal
Camillo Golgi

Connections (synapses) - not seen

The neuron doctrine (Cajal)

Our brain is built from individual cells
 Frontiers 1: Connectomics - modern brain anatomy

Electron microscope (EM) reconstruction of a whole piece of brain (nanometers

resolution). All neurons (and other cell types) and all connections (synapses)

Courtesy of Mitya Chklovskii (Janelia Farm)

Based on hippocampus data from Kristen Harris (U. Texas, Austin)
Connectomics complete 3D reconstruction a small volume of
mammalian cortex

Courtesy of Sebastian Seung (MIT)

 Some prospects for the Connectomics

1. We will have, for the first time ever, the blue print (the
anatomical foundation) of a whole (healthy and sick) brain

2. We may start to bridge the structure-to-function problem (lecture

#6) and enable realistic computer simulations (simulation-based
research) of the respected (healthy or sick) network (lecture #7)
 Frontiers 2. Brainbow technology
Genetic staining of neurons in vivo (light microscope micrometer resolution)

Courtesy of Jeff Lichtman, Jean Livet and Joshua R. Sanes

Brainbow transgenes drive the combinatorial expression of several fluorescent proteins (XFPs) in
neurons, resulting in the colour-tagging of individual cells.

Brainbow-1: stochastic recombination using incompatible lox variants.

Brainbow images The colorful brain
 Some prospects for the Brainbow

1. The structural basis for learning in the brain

2. Tagging and genetic-characterization of the different cell-types
(the building blocks) in a given system (e.g., retina)
3. Tracing short-and-long range connections in brain circuits
Frontiers 3. Brain Machine/Computer Interface (BMI)

On-line BMI requires reading the electrical activity

(itselectrical language its code lessons #3 & #4)
in well-defined (functional) regions.
From Brain to Machine

Spikes in a cell
 Brain-activated robot arm

Courtesy of Miguel Nicolelis (Duke University)

Monkeys brain activity used for self feeding with a robotic arm

Courtesy of Andrew Schwartz, Univ. Pittsburgh

From machine (pulses generated by a battery) to brain
(the amazing success of BMI for ameliorating Parkinosns)

Normal
The
Basal
Ganglia

Parkinson

Parkinson
Courtesy of Hagai Berman, Hebrew Univ.
Implanting stimulating electrodes in patients brain (fully alert)

Stimulating
electrodes

Pulse
generator
 Deep Brain Stimulation
(For ameliorating Parkisons symptoms)

Post-operation Pre-operation

Patient: Male, 58 years old (PD Eight years, with extreme on-off)
Courtesy of Hagai Bergman, Zvi Israel, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem
 Future challenges for BMI

1. Develop chronic brain nano-probes

.2Develop telemetric communication with the brain

.3Develop real-time multi

(millions?) signal processing
methods

.4Improving robotic arm and

Closing the loop Stimulation +
recording
Courtesy of Miguel Nicolelis (Duke University)
 Frontier 4. Optogenetics
Frontiers 3: OPTOGENETICS
Optical stimulation (and recording) from single neurons in the living brain

Channel Rhodopsin opens with blue light Natronomonas pharaonis activated with yellow light
Causes spikes Prevents spikes

Hausser and Smith, Nature 2007

Light-activated (~100 neurons) controlling mouse behavior

Courtesy of Karel Svoboda, Janelia Farm

 Frontier 5. Computer simulation of neuronal circuits
Integrating anatomical and physiological data to provide understanding

I am never content until I have constructed a mathematical model of what I am studying.

If I succeed in making one, I understand; otherwise I do not William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
 The Blue Brain Project
Using the powerful Blue-Gene IBM Computer for realistic
simulation of the cortical circuits

Courtesy of Henry Markram and the Blue Brain team (EPFL, Switzerland)
Step 1 Mathematical models of neurons spiking activity

real

model
Connecting model components (modeled neurons) as in real cortical circuit
Computer voyage into cortical circuit (the cortical column)
Computer simulation of 10,000 neurons and 100 M
synapses in 2 cubic mm of cortical circuit
(electrical activity is color coded)
End of lesson 1