All subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging to explore their neural activity during RSPM problem-solving. Participants were 14 to 36 years old and matched according to their preliminary results on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. "Some critics agued that autistics would be unable to complete the RSPM because of its complexity, yet our study shows autistics complete it as efficiently and have a more highly developed perception than non-autistics."įifteen autistics and 18 non-autistics were recruited for the study. "While both groups performed RSPM test with equal accuracy, the autistic group responded more quickly and appeared to use perceptual regions of the brain to accelerate problem-solving," says lead author Isabelle Soulières, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University who completed the experiment at the Université de Montréal. As part of the investigation, participants were asked to complete patterns in the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) – test that measures hypothesis-testing, problem-solving and learning skills. They are then statistically analyzed and reconstructed on a computer in 3-D.Montreal, JAutistics are up to 40 percent faster at problem-solving than non-autistics, according to a new Université de Montréal and Harvard University study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping. The tissue samples are scanned using microscopes and advanced image analysis techniques. For this purpose, thousands of histological brain sections have been, and are being, investigated at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The procedure is very time-consuming, as a scientist needs about one year to analyze and map a new area.Ībout 70 percent of the brain has now been mapped. The 3-D brain model continues to develop with each newly defined area. Rather, they form networks and cooperate with the subcortical nuclei,” she explains. “The areas of the cortex do not operate in isolation like islands. Furthermore, they not only map the cerebral cortex, but also nuclei deep in the brain. There are several reasons for this: Katrin Amunts and her interdisciplinary team consider that brain structures differ from each other, thus taking their interindividual variability into account. Although only about 70 percent of the brain is mapped, the 3-D brain model from Jülich is in many ways already more complex than the Brodmann map. “We need to understand the ‘healthy’ brain before we can take the next step and distinguish differences in people suffering from neurological or psychiatric disorders,” explains Katrin Amunts. Leipzig, published by Johann Ambrosius Barth.Īlthough Brodmann’s discovery was groundbreaking, the hundredyear- old map is merely a schematic drawing, not the three-dimensional record that is needed today as a basis for comparison in modern imaging studies to assign patient data to the microscopic structures of the brain. Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Großhirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues. Lateral view of the brain map published by Korbinian Brodmann in 1909.Ĭopyright: Brodmann, K. Leipzig, Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth.
Seitliche Ansicht der 1909 von Korbinian Brodmann veröffentlichten Gehirnkarte.
Brodmann was convinced that each brain area is responsible for a specific function, an assumption that could only be proven for a small fraction of the areas with the resources available at that time,”. He not only created a cytoarchitectonic map, but also provided the basis for later comparative neuroanatomical investigations. “The psychiatrist and anatomist Korbinian Brodmann mapped the cerebral cortex and divided it into about 50 areas. Katrin Amunts is developing a unique brain atlas that will gradually replace Brodmann’s map from 1909. Karl Zilles, and a large team of medical doctors, physicists, biologists, mathematicians and graduate students, Prof. Then the cellular architecture is statistically analyzed and digitally reconstructed in 3-D. The sections are analyzed using modern scanning microscopes and image analysis methods. The goal “is to develop a realistic, three-dimensional computer brain model based on structural, cytoarchitectonic, genetic, and molecular characteristics.” As part of this project, scientists at INM-1 are examining many thousands of histological brain sections. The human brain contains about 1,500 cm³ of brain tissue, and the terrain is quite something. Katrin Amunts and her team go on a unique research expedition: They create a three-dimensional atlas of the brainĪt first glance, the “route” is limited.