Project leader
Takeshi Imai
Professor, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University
Greeting
We are pleased to announce the launch of the new research area “Emergence of Brain Functions from the Dynamic Connectome (Dynamic Brain)”.
“How does our mind emerge from just tons of neurons in the brain?” This is one of the most important questions in biology. Fascinated by this mystery, many neuroscientists have studied the structure and function of the brain. I myself have been working to answer this question from a neurodevelopmental perspective. In recent years, we are getting more and more data, thanks to the high-throughput omics or recording techniques. However, we believe that it is the new principles and the new way of thinking that will move science forward. We would like to approach the above question from the perspective of the “dynamic connectome”, which means that our brain functions emerge from the rearrangement of the connectome.
Besides science, we have two important missions: We have to merge and reorganize existing research fields and foster new research fields. We are also committed to training a new generation of researchers in this field. Regarding the former, we have successfully organized the team with original and complementary approaches. We would like to work together to generate the new avenue of the research from Japan. As for the latter, there is an urgent need to train researchers who are good at both wet and dry approaches, as the neuroscience and AI research will merge in the near future.
With the help from inside and outside this research area, we will strive to achieve our goal of elucidating mechanisms of “emergent brain functions”. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation.
Overview
In the nervous system, much of the information processing is achieved by the wiring and synaptic connections between neurons. Therefore, most brain functions emerge from the entirety of synaptic connections between neurons (the connectome). In recent years, the connectome has been extensively studied using electron microscopy and optical microscopy. Optogenetics and pharmacogenetics have been utilized to identify the circuit elements in the brain. Such reductionist approaches have been powerful in identifying the circuit units. On the other hand, the combination of many elements can be more than just the sum of those elements, and such “emergent nature” of the neuronal circuits may be the origin of the brain functions. Interestingly, the emergent brain functions are not innate to our connectome. Our connectome is never created as a complete form from the beginning, but rather is created gradually as it evolves over time during development and learning.
Traditionally, research on synaptic plasticity in development and learning has focused on elementary processes. In contrast, to understand such emergent properties, it is important to capture synaptic plasticity across the entire neural circuit. In this research area, we aim to understand how synapses, neurons, and circuit structures change as a whole during brain development and learning, and what are the principles that give rise to emergent brain functions.
First, we will measure the entire neural circuit structure, the connectome, at multiple time points to elucidate the dynamic changes. Next, we will comprehensively measure the accompanying functional changes (e.g., calcium, glutamate, membrane potential, etc.). Then, based on quantitative analyses, we will clarify the structural changes that support emergent phenomena at the functional level, leading to the demonstration of these changes in mathematical models and reconstructed systems.
In this research area, we will elucidate the principles of the neuronal and circuit scales that give rise to brain function using cutting-edge approaches in the life sciences that integrates multiscale structural and functional imaging data. Our study will help us understand the development of brain function and disease, reconstruct them in silico, and lead to more rational decoding of brain function and therapeutic strategies.
Our research area has the following research aims.
A01 Emergent functions in neurons
A01 aims to study the relationship between quantitative properties of synaptic distribution, dendritic computation, and neuronal function based on emergent properties within a neuron.
A02 Emergent functions in circuits
A02 aims to study the emergence of brain functions based on the dynamic and quantitative properties of network structures.
A03 Reconstitution of emergent brain functions
A03 aims to understand the fundamental features of the emergent brain functions through reconstitution. We use both computer simulation and neuronal organoids.
In addition, our technical support team helps micro-connectomics using electron microscopy, meso/large-scale connectomics with fluorescence microscopy, large-scale functional imaging with ultra-wide-field two-photon microscopy, and computer simulation.
We have posted a movie introducing the scope of this research field. -> movie