Neuroanatomy - Human Brain

A new online application HNBS allows you to identify the various areas of the human brain just clicking the interest point.

The module interface is meant to mimic a radiology workstation with adjacent image scrolling via arrow keys and or mouse wheel button. Hover the cursor over a structure of interest; if active, its name will appear underneath the image. Clicking the mouse button in an active area will synchronize and cross reference all image planes.  To instantly navigate in all image planes move the mouse while holding down the mouse button.

Try it now pressing here.

Structural change of brain cells caused by depression

The Champalimaud Foundation has just acquired a ultra-high field scanner that can deliver results 10x above the conventional MRI. It can be used in several studies of diseases such as multiple sclerosis or depression.

“In depressed patients, cells change structure, change shape and size. With the method that we have been developing in this lab, it could become possible to study these processes and, hopefully, to see these changes as they occur. Potentially in the future it will be useful for clinicians to select treatments and better diagnosis depression.”

This type of equipment can provide new answers on how the human brain works. Watch the video report here.

Obama Administration Encourages the Study of Human Brain

The run to invest in the discovery of the human brain began. Now it is the U.S. with the Administration of President Barack Obama that presents their project with an investment of billions of dollars.

The New York Times, from 13 February 2013, explains in more detail the objectives of this program:

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics. The project, which the administration has been looking to unveil as early as March, will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness.

More information available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/science/project-seeks-to-build-map-of-human-brain.html

Brain Anatomy

The next color pictures show the brain anatomy with Frontal, Parietal, Occipital and Temporal lobes. It also describes some of the brain activity areas as Vision, Speech, Voluntary motor function, Hearing and Higher mental functions.

These pictures were taken from a Medical Legal Art video.


For more informations about BCI/EEG press here.

EPOC EEG System

EMOTIV has developed a new wireless BCI with 14 sensors and a lithium battery with 12 hours of autonomy. It comes with Emokey that converts detected events into a combination of keystrokes running behind existing applications or games.

There's no need for keystroke combinations, simply smile or focus on a command and your applications respond. For example, combining Emotiv EPOC with a smartphone offers unique opportunities to capture brain imaging data reflecting our everyday social behavior in a mobile context, allowing for modeling the mental state of users as well as providing a basis for novel bio-feedback applications.

The EPOC SDKs have 4 different editions (developer, research, enterprise and education) and the price goes from $500 to $2500. "Mind reading images and reconstructing the neural sources", "An experimentation and mind-reading application for the Emotiv EPOC" and "P-300 Rhythm Detection Using ANFIS Algorithm and Wavelet Feature Extraction in EEG Signals" are some of the published papers related to Emotiv.


This system has different applications that can be used to read EEG:

• Emotiv EPOC Brain Activity Map displays a real-time map of your mental activity with adjustable gain that allows to see detailed information and relative strengths between different brain regions. The price is $9.95 and is compatible with the Emotiv EPOC headset and SDK developer and research headsets.

• Emotiv EPOC 3D Brain Activity Map has custom band definition, record and play back sessions, 3D surface models for each band and EEG and FFT views. 

This application costs $79.95 but is only available to Research, Education and Enterprise licenses.