Blog #6: Neuroscience + Art

Brain imaging is a fairly recent discipline that uses various processes of different types of scans and indicated colors to allow viewing of the brain's structures and working functions.  Through these scans, doctors are able to identify any positive or negative signs to accurately diagnose and treat patients.  Artists that are interested in or that have knowledge in neurology, have also found these neuroimages to be the backdrop of their work, since the images of the brain really do look like a work of futuristic art by themselves.  As heard of in lecture, the "brainbow", founded by a technique created by neurologist researchers at Harvard Medical School, uses fluorescent proteins to distinguish between neurons tagged as different colors.  Because of the striking and beautiful images, the brainbow is viewed as a work of art and photography, not just as a technique in furthering brain research.

Brainbow - tagging neurons in the brain with fluorescent proteins

Artists have viewed the coloration and shapes of the different layers of the brain in scans as having Rorschach blot images embedded into them.  These Rorschach images in the brain scans resemble the outline of butterfly wings, in which the artist can transpose butterfly wings onto the MRI scans to fit the blot in the image, drawing a parallel between genetic patterns in nature and advanced imaging technologies.

Butterfly in the brain

Being a psychobiology major, and taking classes in neuroscience and psychology, I myself started research work in a neurobiology laboratory at the Brain Research Institute here at UCLA, and have found the brain itself to be a brilliant masterpiece.  I use many techniques in my research, although it is a beautiful finding when I am at the stage of observing actual neuron potentials labeled as different colors moving on a monitor working in real time as their synapses are sending signals to other neurons to activate directional eye movements and saccade memory.

Neural signals in the brain

More Relevant Links:

Gardner's "Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity"

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/how-to-build-a-bigger-brain-91273.aspx

http://www.nasa.gov/

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/?_r=0

http://thebeautifulbrain.com/category/gallery/

Works Cited:

"Brainbow." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 May 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainbow>.

Neuroscience-pt1.mov. Victoria Vesna. YouYube. N.p., 17 May 2012. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI>.

Neuroscience-pt2.mov. Victoria Vesna. YouYube. N.p., 17 May 2012. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo>.

Images:

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18loxa61cf1atjpg/ku-xlarge.jpg>.

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://neuroanthropology.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/brainbow-composite.jpg>.

Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://www.dataisnature.com/images/MRI_Butterfly_Suzanne_Anker.jpg>.