For the first initiative of the Human Connectome Project (HCP), which is an international effort to study neuron connections, researchers were able to discover that wiring patterns within the brain may reveal desirable and undesirable traits of humans.
In 2010, the HCP, which is said to have cost $40 million, was started with an aim to scan connectomes, or brain networks of 1,200 adults. One of the objectives of the project is to find out which networks are active when the brain is in a resting state - something that are believed to maintain the connections within the brain when a task is required to be executed.
In April 2015, one of the departments of the HCP, headed by Stephen Smith, co-chair of the program from the University of Oxford presented connectomes of approximately 460 individuals aged 22-35 years old, who then possessed an idle brain state. Each of the brain scans were augmented with data about 280 traits such as history of drug use, age, socioeconomic status, personality and findings of intelligence examinations.
The team of Smith then subjected this dataset to a wide computer analysis scheme to investigate the variation extent of the traits, as well as the manner with which these traits are related to the different connectivity patterns within the brain.
The findings of the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed that there is indeed a difference between how brains are connected, and the kind of difference that surfaced is something stark and given. Participants with more positive traits such as high education, better physical agility and above-average scores on memory exams all had the same brain connections. These people seem to have a more closely connected brain compared to those who have negative traits including smoking, familial history of alcohol abuse and aggressive behaviors.
"You can distinguish people with successful traits and successful lives versus those who are not so successful," said Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist from the Washington University. He was quite impressed that merely looking at brain connections may already provide the so-called "positive-negative" axis.
Although the results have sparked interesting ideas, Raichle said that it is impossible to detect from this research how diverse traits are linked to one another and whether the loosely held connections were a cause or effect of the negative traits. Aside from that, brain connections may have to exist for a certain period of time before it can accurately predict the traits of humans.
Deanna Barch, study co-author and a psychologist from the Washington University said that the moment these causal associations are better comprehended, driving the brain towards the direction of "positive axis" may be possible.
More information on connectomes are expected to be released in the future. Also, Smith is already conducting the Developing HCP in the UK, which involves scanning the brains of babies before and after delivery.
In the meantime, HCP is now looking at studying genetic data from its subjects, including identical and fraternal twins, to identify how environment and genetics may be related to the connectivity patterns within the brain.
Photo: amy leonard | Flickr
