Russian scientists for the first time created a 3D model of the olfactory bulb of the human brain

Virtually it was “cut” into 4 thousand layers!

Russian scientists who worked as part of an international team managed to teach artificial intelligence to recognize the multilayer microstructures of the human brain, in particular, the olfactory bulb.

Biologists have long wanted to know more about the purpose of the olfactory bulb, a paired organ hidden in our brains. This is a small area under the frontal lobe, 0.5 cm in size, which, like a real bulb, has a complex layered structure. Scientists have long understood that it is responsible for our sense of smell, but they doubt that only the functionality of this organ ends with it. Neurons lying in different layers can perform many other tasks.

Until recently, this and similar brain microstructures were studied either at low resolution by MRI, or as a result of autopsy on the pathologist’s table. But even then, scientists could not make out the structure of the olfactory bulb. This is the first time artificial intelligence has done this.

Researcher at the Institute of Crystallography. Marina Chukalina, head of the tomography department of one of the innovative companies in the capital, Marina Chukalina, said that a team of scientists and artificial intelligence specialists managed to build a high-resolution 3D model of the olfactory bulb without destroying the sample (after that, it can be sent for research in another way). In fact, they “looked” inside this organ, virtually cutting the bulb into 4 thousand (!) Layers.

The organ of a deceased person was used for the study. In order to build its 3D model, the scientists carried out multi-stage processing of X-ray images. And special neural network models (artificial intelligence) ensured the recognition of individual layers of the olfactory bulb in each of the digital sections.

“In the future, the results of the experiment will be in demand by biologists and doctors who are studying the causes of functional and morphological disorders of the olfactory bulb in people suffering from neurodegenerative disorders, as well as those who have lost their sense of smell due to COVID-19 infection,” says Marina Chukalina. “Biologists around the world are striving to achieve high-resolution imaging of the brain in living people.