Looking Into the Mind’s Eye

Archis R. Bhandarkar

A Review of the Latest Neurotechnology

Motivation“If the human brain were so simple that we could

understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't.” Emerson Pugh

Understanding Complex Systems

Creative Solutions

Overview

What strategies do we have to perceive the human mind?

• Technologies in Scanning/Diagnostics• Technologies in Capturing Individual Neurons• Mathematical Modeling of the Neuron

Technologies in Scanning

Positron Emission Tomography

• Powerful tool in neurological analysis• Gauge of energy consumption

Areas of greater activity (energy consumption) are

depicted in RED

Positron Emission Tomography

Positron Emission Tomography

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• Fine anatomic detail of 3D structure using magnetic field scanning

Tissues with a lot of water/fat register as a

brighter image, whereas bone comes up black

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

fMRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

DTIMRS

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

• NON-INVASIVE• Same physics as MRI to trace biochemical

concentration

Mathematics Behind DTI

• Water molecules tend to diffuse along axons• DTI uses mathematics to trace the molecules

Functional MRI

• Hemodynamics (deoxyhemoglobin)• Activity- blood flow correlation

Integrated DTI/fMRI

http://www.youtube.com/v/J2ZTjA4BtDA&feature=fvw

Technologies in Targeting the Neuron

Optogenetics

• Express opsin genes in organism• Target specific neurons to fire through light

exposure

Potential of Optogenetics

http://www.youtube.com/v/v7uRFVR9BPU&feature=fvw

Two Photon Calcium Imaging

• Tracks calcium ions to trace individual neuron activity

Mathematical Modeling of the Neuron

Hodgkin-Huxley Model

• Differential equations based on Hodgkin-Huxley study of squid axons

• Equivalence of Neuron to Circuit

FitzHugh-Nagumo Model

• Simplification of Hodgkin-Huxley

Conclusion

• Larger Idea Flow• Broadened Interdisciplinary Research• Greater Tools for Diagnostics

Wide Variety of Perspectives Leads to:

Thank you for listening

Sources• Brain Facts• http://www.uop.edu.jo/download/PdfCourses/caclulus/tensor%20analysis

%20intro.pdf• http://www.fmri.org/fmri.htm• http://meteoreservice.com/PDFs/JMRI_DTI.PDF• http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/16473/page2/• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Basic_Physics_of_Nuclear_Medicine/MRI_

%26_Nuclear_Medicine