Recently, scientists increased the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to 64 million times higher than normal. They used this technique to produce breathtaking high-resolution images of the mouse brain, revealing the organ like never before.

While the rotating, psychedelic images are of a rodent’s brain, the research team believes humans could be the next step from these newly developed brain scans. The technology could help doctors detect changes in the human brain due to changes associated with healthy aging as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The mouse scan was published as part of a new paper in the journal PNAS.

“That’s what really helps,” lead author H. Allan Johnson, distinguished professor of radiology at Duke University, said in a statement. “We can start looking at neurodegenerative diseases in a completely different way.”

Over the course of four decades, with the help of a steady group of students and researchers at Duke University’s Center for In Vivo Microscopy, 50 years ago, American physician Dr. He worked to improve the MRI, which was invented by Raymond Damadian.

An MRI uses powerful magnets to create magnetic fields that cause the “spins” of hydrogen atoms in water molecules in the body to align or point in a certain direction. The machine then uses a pulse of radio waves to “flip” the spins of the atoms. The atoms then realign and each spin produces a radio signal that can be detected by an MRI scanner and used to create an image.

To develop this technology, the researchers created an advanced MRI equipped with a powerful 9.4 tesla magnet. (By comparison, most MRIs are equipped with 1.5 to 3 tesla magnets.) They’ve also added gradient coils that are 100 times more powerful than current models, and that’s what creates the images, a high-speed computer that’s also powerful. from about 800 laptops according to the description.

After the researchers scanned the mouse’s brain, they sent tissue samples to be imaged using a technique called light sheet microscopy, which allowed them to label specific groups of cells in the brain and then mapped to the original MRI. These additional steps provided a more colorful picture of cells and circuits in the brain, according to the statement.

The researchers made a series of MRI images that recorded how the connection between the mouse brain developed with age. A second set of images showed brightly colored brain connections highlighting the disruption of neural networks in a rodent model of Alzheimer’s disease, according to the statement.

By studying mouse models of human diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, researchers can better understand how these diseases develop and progress in humans. The technique could also be useful for studying how the brain changes when mice are given certain diets or given drugs to extend their lifespan, Johnson said in a statement.

“The question is, do their brains stay intact throughout this long lifespan?” said. “We now have the capacity to look at it. And when we do, we can translate that directly into the human condition.”