Brain Development and the Power of Fluorescence Imaging: Findings Based on a Zebrafish Study

摘要

The human brain is an organ of extraordinary complexity. Understanding how the brain develops is not only intrinsically interesting, but also has great significance in understanding, and possibly treating, neurological disorders and CNS injury. At the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College, London, Dr. Steffen Scholpp, working with Professor Andrew Lumsden, is interested in the early development of the thalamus. In humans, this is the size and shape of an egg and is located in the centre of the brain. "The thalamus is the 'gateway to the cortex'," Dr. Scholpp explains, "and is the most important processing centre in the brain. It receives almost all sensory signals from the peripheral nervous system via the spinal cord and hindbrain and filters, prioritises, modulates and relays these signals to the brain cortex. Key questions are: how does the thalamus form? What regulates its development? And how does it acquire its distinct functions?"