nature | The brain’s wiring patterns can shed light on a person’s positive and negative traits, researchers report in Nature Neuroscience1. The finding, published on 28 September, is the first from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), an international effort to map active connections between neurons in different parts of the brain.
The
HCP, which launched in 2010 at a cost of US$40 million, seeks to scan
the brain networks, or connectomes, of 1,200 adults. Among its goals is
to chart the networks that are active when the brain is idle; these are thought to keep the different parts of the brain connected in case they need to perform a task.
In
April, a branch of the project led by one of the HCP's co-chairs,
biomedical engineer Stephen Smith at the University of Oxford, UK,
released a database of resting-state connectomes from about 460 people
between 22 and 35 years old. Each brain scan is supplemented by
information on approximately 280 traits, such as the person's age,
whether they have a history of drug use, their socioeconomic status and
personality traits, and their performance on various intelligence tests.
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