News

In the current issue of the renowned journal Nature Methods, siibra is introduced: a software suite that integrates data from different multimodal sources into a comprehensive atlas of the human brain and makes it easily accessible—for interactive exploration as well as for automated and reproducible data analyses, simulations, and AI applications. Siibra is developed by an international team of scientists under the leadership of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

A new study supported by EBRAINS 2.0 and the Virtual Brain Twin Project has presented a biologically grounded computer model of the cerebellar cortex – the part of the brain involved in coordinating movement and supporting learning – that simulates brain activity with remarkable realism.

Researchers developed tailored computational mean-field brain models to capture how different cerebellar regions generate and shape neural activity. Integrated into The Virtual Brain platform using EBRAINS infrastructure, this work enables biologically grounded, multi-scale brain simulations for clinical applications.

A team of researchers from the University of Pavia has introduced a tool that automatically converts detailed spiking neural network models into simpler “mean field model” (MFM) equations – mathematical descriptions that capture the dynamics of populations of neurons.

A recent review by researchers at the Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM-1) examines the development of methodology—and thus the progress—in the neurosciences using the hippocampus as an example, the brain region responsible for learning, memory, and spatial orientation. 

Scientists have presented a new case report on the effect of deep brain stimulation in a patient with a rare genetic motor disorder. Caused by the mutation of a gene called POLR3A, this disease often results in a pronounced so-called action tremor, which disrupts any voluntary movement of the affected person through severe tremor.

In a new study in Nature Communications, scientists from Canada, Great Britain and Germany have used the Julich Brain Atlas and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging to study patterns of organization across the whole brain and on the microstructure. The atlas is an open and interactive ressource available to neuroscientists on the digital EBRAINS research infrastructure. The results highlight an interplay between local brain areas with distinct structural and functional profiles, and global patterns which span the whole brain as cortical gradients.

The brain’s default mode network is a group of regions that become active when we are not engaged with our surroundings – for instance, when daydreaming. Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have now investigated the structure and function of this network by analysing brain tissue and applying advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

Using the BigBrain, which is available on the EBRAINS research infrastructure, the study revealed microstructural differences that influence how the default mode network communicates with other regions of the brain. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. 

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.