

Live now: Human brain cut into thin slices - huangm
http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm_live.php

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ucsd-tbo
Hi everyone, I'm the girl that works at the brain observatory that ddemchuk
mentioned. I just wanted to say that it's really amazing to see so many people
interested in our project, so thank you! Also, I thought you might be
interested in a rough overview of the process. As was already mentioned, we've
been preparing HM's brain since Feb in order to be able to freeze it without
actually damaging any of the tissue. We embedded the brain in a block of
gelatin to ease the cutting process, and we froze the block yesterday. The
sections do wrinkle up on the microtome, but both the gelatin and the fact
that we cut at a very low temperature (-40C) allow us to maintain the
structural integrity of the tissue (and yes, we do use a paintbrush to
retrieve the sections). Hope that cleared some stuff up! Thanks again for
watching!

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pavs
Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing the details with us.

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yan
This isn't just any brain, it's HM's brain[1], who possibly contributed more
to neuroscience than any other single patient.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_(patient)>

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huangm
It's going on now and for the next ~50 hours. The brain belongs to H.M., the
guy that the movie Memento is 'based on'. When he was alive, he could not
create new short-term memories. He's been the subject of study for years until
he passed in 2008.

Watching this is a bit weird, it's reminiscent of a deli meat slicer.

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teej
This may be picking nits, but HM could not create new long term episodic
memories. He could use short term memories and learn new skills, but he
couldn't remember times, places, and events.

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krallja
He could learn declarative knowledge like that, but not very well.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970> \- Dr. MILNER:
How about 1963? Someone was assassinated.

H.M.: He'd been a president.

Dr. MILNER: That's right.

H.M.: And he was assassinated.

Dr. MILNER: What was his name?

H.M.: He had been, like you said, he had been a president.

Dr. MILNER: His initials are JFK.

H.M.: Kennedy.

Dr. MILNER: That's right. What was his first name?

H.M.: John.

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Ezra
More about HM, whose brain it is:
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/02-cork.html>

You can watch a ten-minute video feature at the site below:
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/video/0407/i02.html>

Note that within the first few minutes of that video, they show the brain
already sliced up, and speak about it in the past tense; there's also a cut-
and-died slice in a photo of the already-dissected brain on the first link...

I first watched that feature a few months ago, and from what I could gather,
the episode was originally aired on 2009 August 25; anybody know what gives?

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joeyo
I'm sure they know what they are doing but the way that the slice is extracted
after each pass seems really problematic to me. It looks like the slice
"bunches up" and they extract it manually with some kind of blunt instrument.
Wouldn't that result in a lot of unintended tearing and deforming of the
slice? Perhaps someone who has used a microtome before can explain.

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johndevor
Are they saving the slices or just photographing each layer as it's cut down?

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Devilboy
I'm pretty sure they just care about the photographs at this stage.

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aarongough
That's what I thought as well... I don't think the slices themselves would be
much (if any) more useful than just dissecting the brain normally...

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ars
Watch the video link posted by Ezra
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=973677> and you can see what they do with
each slice.

They store it in a tray with square holes (all bunched up). Later they remove
it, wash it, mount it on glass, and stain it. Then it goes under an automatic
microscope that scans it.

~~~
aarongough
Wow, thanks! From the way the slices were bunched up I (wrongly) assumed they
were basically getting thrown away. But I guess not!

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weaksauce
This is one of those things that I never thought the internet would bring you:
Real time slicing of a brain. Crazy. It's amazing to think of where we will be
in another 10-30 years.

~~~
anigbrowl
By then you'll be able to watch them slice up and scan your own brain, as they
transfer your personality to a digital substrate. I hope.

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aarongough
Amazing. As an additional note: their whole website is really beautifully
designed...

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ddemchuk
My girlfriend lives with a girl who works at that lab and is probably working
on that brain right now. She's explained a lot of the process to me, it's
pretty fascinating stuff. I think they save every 10 slices or so, and the
brain has been being prepared for like 6 months so as to allow for them to do
the slicing like they do. They then go on to create the slides that will be
digitally archived for other labs to study.

