Wellcome Image Collection

Several members of the Natbrainlab have had their artwork admitted to the Wellcome Image Collection - Marco Catani, Flavio Dell'Acqua, Stephanie Forkel and Henrietta Howells. Below are a sample of the images accepted. All rights are managed by the Wellcome Image Collection - for permission to reproduce these images please visit their website.

Dr Marco Catani: Brain network controlling fine hand movements, tractography. Five views of the connections in the human brain that control fine hand movements. These connections resemble a poppy flower and can be visualised in the living human brain using modern neuroimaging methods. The red fibres are found in the brain just above the ear, and assemble the necessary information (tactile and visual sensory information) needed to move the fingers. This information is turned into a motor command that is carried peripherally to the hand by the green fibres running through the spinal cord. Abnormal maturation of the red fibres can result in poor motor skills in children suffering with dyspraxia and autism. The green fibres are particularly vulnerable to stroke and neurodegeneration. Using tractography to visualise these fibres in the living human brain is being used to help research novel mechanisms for promoting motor recovery. The size of the structure shown here corresponds to the dimensions of a real poppy flower. This image was created by virtually dissecting the brain using data obtained from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Diffusion weighted imaging is a specialised type of MRI scan which measures water diffusion in many directions in order to reconstruct the orientation of bundles of nerve fibres. Tractography is used to indirectly model these bundles of nerve fibres (tracts), which support communication between different brain regions.

Dr Flavio Dell'Acqua: Healthy adult human brain viewed from above, MRI. Virtual anatomical dissection of a healthy adult human brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this bird's eye (superior) view, the front of the brain is facing the top of the image and the back of the brain is at the bottom. This image shows a brain slice from a structural MRI scan of a healthy living subject. It has been processed using advanced 3D rendering techniques to mimic the appearance of the brain as it may look after a real post-mortem dissection. Image is false-coloured (orange). Everyday thousands of similar brain scans are collected by clinicians and neuroscientists around the world to study and explore how the living human brain works and to investigate how it changes during normal development or disease.

Rights managed by Wellcome Images.

Dr Stephanie Forkel: Processing language, left brain hemisphere (sagittal view). Visualising language processing regions in a living human brain. In this image the brain is viewed from the side (sagittal view), with the front of the brain facing the left side of the image and the back of the brain on the right. Language is processed across a large network of brain regions, with two regions primarily important for language, one for articulation and one for comprehension. These areas are located in distant parts of the brain and are connected to each other by the arcuate fasciculus (red). Brain cells communicate with each other through these nerve fibres, which have been visualised using diffusion imaging tractography. Diffusion weighted imaging is a specialised type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan which measures water diffusion in many directions in order to reconstruct the orientation of bundles of axons. Tractography is used to indirectly model these bundles of axons (nerve fibres), which transmit information between cortical regions at the brain's surface. These connections are being studied in the healthy brain in order to further understand changes that occur in developmental disorders (for example autism), neurodegenerative processes (such as dementia) and head trauma (for example stroke). Rights managed by Wellcome Images.

Henrietta Howells: Healthy adult human brain viewed from the side, Deep Dreaming. Side view of connections in the brain of a healthy 29 year old female human as interpreted by Google's Deep Dream software. The brain is viewed as if looking through the head from a person's right ear. The front of the brain is facing the right side of the image and the back of the brain is on the left. This image was created by first visualising nerve fibres in the brain using diffusion imaging tractography. The resulting image was then passed through Google's Deep Dream software. Diffusion weighted imaging is a specialised type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan which measures water diffusion in many directions in order to reconstruct the orientation of bundles of axons. Tractography is used to indirectly model these bundles of axons (nerve fibres), which transmit information between cortical regions at the brain's surface. The brain measures approximately 18 cm from front to back. Rights managed by Wellcome Images.