Read these statements from the National Institute of Health article "Complex Brain has Simple Grid Structure." Which line best supports the claim that ongoing brain research is important?
The brain's grid structure appears to guide connectivity like lane markers on a highway, limiting options for growing nerve fibers to change direction during development.
Diffusion MRI can visualize the networks of crisscrossing fibers with 10 times greater detail than conventional MRI.
"Far from being just a tangle of wires, the brain's connections turn out to be more like ribbon cables--folding 2-D sheets of parallel neuronal fibers that cross paths at right angles, like the warp and weft of a fabric," Wedeen says.
The new technique will help researchers better understand how the brain develops and may give insights into disorders like epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia."