Understandably, neuroscientists really want to investigate these neurons and synapses to work out how they play such a vital role in our human makeup. Unfortunately, these 100 trillion connections are crammed into a two-pound bag of soggy flesh, making analysis rather hard. At the moment we know that neurons trigger an electrical signal, and that hormones affect the speed at which signals cross between synapses, and that somehow this results in a mental image of a naked Kristen Bell from her Veronica Mars period, but that’s about it.
To perform this kind of analysis, MIT must slice this three-dimensional 0.3-millimeter piece of brain tissue into incredibly thin, “2D” slices using a diamond blade and a process called serial electron microscopy. The slices are so thin that a terabyte of images are created from a piece of brain that’s much smaller than the head of a pin. You now have some idea of how hard it will be to investigate and understand the human brain; we’re talking about hundreds of exabytes of imagery that would need to be analyzed.
Ultimately, though, if we could get our hands on the connectome of the human brain… Well, we would experience an enlightenment of unprecedented scale. We would understand exactly why we are the way that we are. There would be no stones left to turn.
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