A petavoxel fragment of human cerebral cortex reconstructed at nanoscale resolution

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 384; no. 6696; p. eadk4858
• Main Authors: Shapson-Coe, Alexander, Januszewski, Michał, Berger, Daniel R., Pope, Art, Wu, Yuelong, Blakely, Tim, Schalek, Richard L., Li, Peter H., Wang, Shuohong, Maitin-Shepard, Jeremy, Karlupia, Neha, Dorkenwald, Sven, Sjostedt, Evelina, Leavitt, Laramie, Lee, Dongil, Troidl, Jakob, Collman, Forrest, Bailey, Luke, Fitzmaurice, Angerica, Kar, Rohin, Field, Benjamin, Wu, Hank, Wagner-Carena, Julian, Aley, David, Lau, Joanna, Lin, Zudi, Wei, Donglai, Pfister, Hanspeter, Peleg, Adi, Jain, Viren, Lichtman, Jeff W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.05.2024
• Subjects: Axons - physiology; Axons - ultrastructure; Biopsy; Blood vessels; Brain; Cerebral cortex; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - ultrastructure; Circuits; Datasets; Dendrites - physiology; Editing; Electron microscopy; Epilepsy; Glial cells; Hippocampus; Humans; Internet resources; Microscopy; Myelin; Neural networks; Neurogenesis; Neuroimaging; Neurons; Neurons - ultrastructure; Neurosurgery; Oligodendroglia - ultrastructure; Organoids; Synapses; Synapses - physiology; Synapses - ultrastructure; Temporal lobe; Temporal Lobe - ultrastructure
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adk4858

To fully understand how the human brain works, knowledge of its structure at high resolution is needed. Presented here is a computationally intensive reconstruction of the ultrastructure of a cubic millimeter of human temporal cortex that was surgically removed to gain access to an underlying epileptic focus. It contains about 57,000 cells, about 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and about 150 million synapses and comprises 1.4 petabytes. Our analysis showed that glia outnumber neurons 2:1, oligodendrocytes were the most common cell, deep layer excitatory neurons could be classified on the basis of dendritic orientation, and among thousands of weak connections to each neuron, there exist rare powerful axonal inputs of up to 50 synapses. Further studies using this resource may bring valuable insights into the mysteries of the human brain. A complete understanding of the human brain begins with elucidation of its structural properties at a subcellular level. To provide a valuable resource for the scientific community and to better understand the structure of the human temporal cortex, Shapson-Coe et al . performed an electron microscopy reconstruction of a cubic millimeter of human temporal cortex. The authors produced 1.4 petabytes of electron microscopy data; classified and quantified cell types, vessels and synapses; and developed a freely available tool for analyzing these data. Their findings allowed the authors to identify previously unknown aspects of the human temporal cortex. —Mattia Maroso