Researchers of the Human Brain Project have developed a new methodology to calculate the delay of signal propagations in brains of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects more than 2 million people worldwide.

The cerebral cortex organizes itself in specific neuronal assemblies when consciously perceiving sounds, generating “creative” patterns of activity.

A study by Human Brain Project (HBP) researchers identifies a new marker for predicting the clinical outcome of patients of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) through magnetoencephalography. This marker can be measured in the brain during its resting state and highlights the importance of brain flexibility for ALS patients. The study, published in Neurology, has been led by the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes in Marseille, in collaboration with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Parthenope University of Naples and Institute of Diagnosis and Care Hermitage Capodimonte in Naples, and the Monash University in Melbourne.

Psychostimulants are commonly used as treatments of psychiatric disorders or to improve cognition, but the benefits of these drugs are not the same for everyone, as their effects vary greatly both across individuals and within the same patient. This large variability poses a major problem for treatment strategies in psychiatry, and the reasons behind it are still not clear. Now, scientists of the Human Brain Project (HBP) moved closer to understanding them.

One of the greatest challenges in the field of neurology and intensive care medicine is correctly diagnosing the level of consciousness of a patient in coma due to severe brain injury. Scientists of the Human Brain Project (HBP) now have explored new techniques that may pave the way to better tell apart two different neurological conditions.

Researchers of the Human Brain Project (HBP) have mapped four new areas of the human anterior prefrontal cortex that plays a major role in cognitive functions. Two of the newly identified areas are relatively larger in females than in males. 

Researchers of the Human Brain Project (HBP) have identified seven new areas of the human insular cortex, a region of the brain that is involved in a wide variety of functions, including self-awareness, cognition, motor control, sensory and emotional processing. All newly detected areas are now available as 3D probability maps in the Julich Brain Atlas, and can be openly accessed via the HBP’s EBRAINS infrastructure. Their findings, published in NeuroImage, provide new insights into the structural organisation of this complex and multifunctional region of the human neocortex. 

Researchers of the Human Brain Project have created the first multiscale model of how a Parkinson’s brain responds to deep brain stimulation. Deep brain stimulation is a common method to treat Parkinson's symptoms, but currently outcomes of the invasive treatment are hard to predict. Modeling and simulating electric stimulation across multiple levels of brain networks can help clinicians “preview” their effects and plan therapies accordingly.

New brain maps show that cells, receptors and gene activity change along the same boundaries. The study, which was conducted by researchers of the Human Brain Project, elucidates principles of human brain organisation for areas of the visual, auditory, somatosensory and motor systems.

Human Brain Project researchers collaborate with Intel to bring AI closer to the energy efficiency of the brain.