On brain activity mapping: Insights and lessons from Brain Decoding Project to map memory patterns in the hippocampus

The BRAIN project recently announced by the president Obama is the reflection of unrelenting human quest for cracking the brain code, the patterns of neuronal activity that define who we are and what we are. While the Brain Activity Mapping proposal has rightly emphasized on the need to develop new technologies for measuring every spike from every neuron, it might be helpful to consider both the theoretical and experimental aspects that would accelerate our search for the organizing principles of the brain code. Here we share several insights and lessons from the similar proposal, namely, Brain Decoding Project that we initiated since 2007. We provide a specific example in our initial mapping of real-time memory traces from one part of the memory circuit, namely, the CA1 region of the mouse hippocampus. We show how innovative behavioral tasks and appropriate mathematical analyses of large datasets can play equally, if not more, important roles in uncovering the specific-to-general feature-coding cell assembly mechanism by which episodic memory, semantic knowledge, and imagination are generated and organized. Our own experiences suggest that the bottleneck of the Brain Project is not only at merely developing additional new technologies, but also the lack of efficient avenues to disseminate cutting edge platforms and decoding expertise to neuroscience community. Therefore, we propose that in order to harness unique insights and extensive knowledge from various investigators working in diverse neuroscience subfields, ranging from perception and emotion to memory and social behaviors, the BRAIN project should create a set of International and National Brain Decoding Centers at which cutting-edge recording technologies and expertise on analyzing large datasets analyses can be made readily available to the entire community of neuroscientists who can apply and schedule to perform cutting-edge research.

Comparison of detection results of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy at different degrees in infant patients between brain electrical activity mapping, transcranial Doppler sonography and computer tomography examinations

BACKGROUND： It has been proved that brain electrical activity mapping （BEAM） and transcranial Doppler （TCD） detection can reflect the function of brain cell and its diseased degree of infant patients with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy （HIE）. OBJECTIVE： To observe the abnormal results of HIE at different degrees detected with BEAM and TCD in infant patients, and compare the detection results at the same time point between BEAM, TCD and computer tomography （CT） examinations. DESIGN ： Contrast observation SETTING： Departments of Neuro-electrophysiology and Pediatrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College. PARTICIPANTS： Totally 416 infant patients with HIE who received treatment in the Department of Newborn Infants, Second Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College during January 2001 and December 2005. The infant patients, 278 male and 138 female, were at embryonic 37 to 42 weeks and weighing 2.0 to 4.1 kg, and they were diagnosed with CT and met the diagnostic criteria of HIE of newborn infants compiled by Department of Neonatology, Pediatric Academy, Chinese Medical Association. According to diagnostic criteria, 130 patients were mild abnormal, 196 moderate abnormal and 90 severe abnormal. The relatives of all the infant patients were informed of the experiment. METHOOS： BEAM and TCD examinations were performed in the involved 416 infant patients with HIE at different degrees with DYD2000 16-channel BEAM instrument and EME-2000 ultrasonograph before preliminary diagnosis treatment （within 1 month after birth） and 1,3,6,12 and 24 months after birth, and detected results were compared between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Comparison of detection results of HIE at different time points in infant patients between BEAM. TCD and CT examinations. RESULTS： All the 416 infant patients with HIE participated in the result analysis. （1） Comparison of the detected results in infant patients with mild HIE at different time points after birth between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： BEAM examination showed that the recovery was delayed, and the abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination 1 and 3 months after birth [55.4%（72/130）vs. 17.0% （22/130 ）,x^2=41.66 ;29.2% （ 38/130 ） vs. 6.2% （ 8/130 ）, x^2=23.77, P 〈 0.01 ], exceptional patients had mild abnormality and reached the normal level in about 6 months. TCD examination showed that the disease condition significantly improved and infant patients with HIE basically recovered 1 or 2 months after birth, while CT examination showed that infant patients recovered 3 or 4 months after birth. （2） Comparison of detection results of infant patients with moderate HIE at different time points between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： The abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination 1,3,6 and 12 months after birth [90.8% （178/196）,78.6% （154/196）,x^2=4.32,P 〈 0.05;64.3% （126/196）,43.9% （86/196） ,x^2=16.44 ;44.9% （88/196） ,22.4% （44/196）,x^2=22.11 ;21.4% （42/196）, 10.2% （20/196）,x^2=9.27, P 〈 0.01]. BEAM examination showed that there was still one patient who did not completely recovered in the 24^th month due to the relatives of infant patients did not combine the treatment,. TCD examination showed that the abnormal rate was 23.1%（30/196）in the 1^st month after birth, and all the patients recovered to the normal in the 3^rd month after birth, while CT examination showed that mild abnormality still existed in the 24^th month after birth （1.0% ,2/196）. （3） Comparison of detection results of infant patients with severe HIE at different time points between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： The abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination in the 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th and 12^th months after birth[86.7% （78/90）,44.4% （40/90）,x^2=35.53;62.2% （56/90）,31.1% （28/90）,x^2=17.51 ;37.8% （34/90）,6.7% （6/90）, x^2=27.14, P 〈 0.01]. BEAM examination showed that mild abnormality still existed in 4 infant patients in the 24^th month after birth. TCD examination showed that the abnormal rate was 11.1% （10/90） in the 3^rd month after birth, and all the infant patients recovered in the 6^th month after birth. CT examination showed that the abnormal rate was 6.7%（6/90） in the 12^th month after birth, and all of infant patients recovered to the normal in the 24^th month after birth.CONCLUSION ： BEAM is the direct index to detect brain function of infant patients with HIE, and positive reaction is still very sensitive in the tracking detection of convalescent period. The positive rate of morphological reaction in CT examination is superior to that in TCD examination, and the positive rate is very high in the acute period of HIE in examination.

Mapping Domain- and Age-Specific Functional Brain Activity for Children’s Cognitive and Affective Development

The human brain undergoes rapid development during childhood,with significant improvement in a wide spectrum of cognitive and affective functions.Mapping domain-and age-specific brain activity patterns has important implications for characterizing the development of children’s cognitive and affective functions.The current mainstay of brain templates is primarily derived from structural magnetic resonance imaging(MRI),and thus is not ideal for mapping children’s cognitive and affective brain development.By integrating task-dependent functional MRI data from a large sample of 250 children(aged 7 to 12)across multiple domains and the latest easy-to-use and transparent preprocessing workflow,we here created a set of age-specific brain functional activity maps across four domains:attention,executive function,emotion,and risky decision-making.Moreover,we developed a toolbox named Developmental Brain Functional Activity maps across multiple domains that enables researchers to visualize and download domain-and age-specific brain activity maps for various needs.This toolbox and maps have been released on the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse website(http://www.nitrc.org/projects/dbfa).Our study provides domain-and age-specific brain activity maps for future developmental neuroimaging studies in both healthy and clinical populations.

Nanoscience and the nano-bioelectronics frontier

This review describes work presented in the 2014 inaugural Tsinghua University Press-Springer Nano Research Award lecture, as well as current and future opportunities for nanoscience research at the interface with brain science. First, we briefly summarize some of the considerations and the research journey that has led to our focus on bottom-up nanoscale science and technology. Second, we recapitulate the motivation for and our seminal contributions to nanowire- based nanoscience and technology, including the rational design and synthesis of increasingly complex nanowire structures, and the corresponding broad range of ＂applications＂ enabled by the capability to control structure, com- position and size from the atomic level upwards. Third, we describe in more detail nanowire-based electronic devices as revolutionary tools for brain science, including （i） motivation for nanoelectronics in brain science, （ii） demonstration of nanowire nanoelectronic arrays for high-spatial/high-temporal resolution extracellular recording, （iii） the development of fundamentally-new intracellular nanoelectronic devices that approach the sizes of single ion channels, （iv） the introduction and demonstration of a new paradigm for innervating cell networks with addressable nanoelectronic arrays in three-dimensions. Last, we conclude with a brief discussion of the exciting and potentially transformative advances expected to come from work at the nanoelectronics-brain interface.