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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.