New IU research shows link between two sides of the brain

IU and international researchers have created a map of a core center of the brain that might be important to the workings of both hemispheres, according to an IU news release.\nThe study involved looking at the brains of five human participants, culminating in the first high-resolution map of how fibers for higher-level thinking in the brain communicate with each other. Researchers from IU, the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and Harvard Medical School worked on the study, according to the news release.\nPrior to the research, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure activity in the brain – but it didn’t show the role of anatomy in creating the activity. The new research used fMRI as well as diffusion MRI, a noninvasive technique other scientists can use in the future to look at the brain at greater resolution, according to the news release.\nThe researchers plan to study more brains in the future, looking specifically at the effects of age and disease, according to the news release.\nThe results from the research were published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS Biology on June 30, according to the news release.