Human Connectome Project
The Human Connectome Project is an academic support program, support in the framework of the National Institutes of Health since September 2010 with a total of nearly 40 million U.S. dollars researching the nerve connections in the healthy human brain. All of these compounds are referred to in this context as Konnektom. Under the program, special imaging techniques over a period of five years developed and built up an extensive database of healthy adult volunteers.
Participating research groups and project structure
Washington University and University of Minnesota
The first project group is led by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. It consists of a total of 33 collaborators who work among others at the University of Oxford, UC Berkeley and Indiana University Bloomington. The main task of this project will be to investigate by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI ), the brains of 1,200 healthy adult subjects. Here, in particular of functional MRI and diffusion imaging plays a prominent role, since these conclusions allow the brain activity and the course of the large nerve fiber bundles.
The measurements are carried out in specially adapted MRI scanners. Until the spring of 2012 the requisite technical bases will be developed; a first data set was presented to the public in January 2012. In order to investigate the relative influence of genetic and environmental influences on the human Konnektom be recruited as volunteer subjects for the second phase of 300 pairs of identical twins and their " normal" siblings. In addition to the MRI images, a part of the subject by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), is examined. In addition, the genome of all subjects is sequenced and performed certain motor, sensory, and cognitive tests.
The resulting database will be made available via an online platform for the global research community. It should allow new insights into the natural variability of the neural connections in the human brain, as well as their causes and effects. A longer-term goal of this research is to diagnose reliable through a better understanding of healthy human Konnektoms also diseases of the brain and treat effectively. This part of the project is funded with a total of 30 million U.S. dollars.
Massachusetts General Hospital and UCLA
A second team, consisting of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University in Boston and the University of California, Los Angeles, focuses on the development of Diffusion Spectrum Imaging, a special variant of diffusion imaging, which covers very comprehensive data. A novel MRI scanner resolution higher and shorter measurement time to be achieved, as they were previously possible. Some of the subjects of the first project team should be examined for direct comparison with the thus improved process. This part of the project will support over a period of three years, with about 8.5 million U.S. dollars.