Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Scientists made a new map of the brain. It shows the fats in the brain.
These fats are called lipids. The map is in three dimensions, so it has length, width and depth.
The map shows 539 different regions. A region is one area with its own kind of fats.
This is the first map like this. It helps us learn how the brain is built.
- brain
- the organ in your head that controls your body
- map
- a picture that shows where things are
- lipid
- a fat molecule
- region
- an area
- three dimensions
- length, width and depth
- scientist
- a person who studies nature
- first
- before all others
- build
- to make something from parts
Level 2 - Elementary
Scientists have produced what they call the first detailed three dimensional map of lipids in the brain. Lipids are fatty molecules, and the brain contains many different kinds of them.
ScienceDaily reported the work on October 13. The map identifies 539 distinct regions, each with its own pattern of lipids.
Until now, most brain maps showed cells, genes or electrical activity. A lipid map adds a new chemical layer to the picture.
Researchers say such a map could help them understand how the brain is organized and how it changes in disease. More studies will be needed to test those ideas.
- molecule
- a very small group of atoms that forms a substance
- distinct
- clearly different from others
- pattern
- a repeated or regular arrangement
- layer
- one level of something
- organized
- arranged in a clear system
- disease
- an illness
- chemical
- related to substances and how they combine
- identify
- to find and name
Level 3 - Intermediate
Researchers have assembled what they describe as the first detailed three dimensional map of lipids in the brain, revealing 539 distinct regions defined by their fatty chemistry, ScienceDaily reported on October 13.
Lipids, the fat based molecules that build cell membranes and insulate nerve fibers, are among the brain's most abundant components, yet they have been far harder to chart than genes or proteins. A map that places them in three dimensions shows where particular lipid profiles cluster.
The finding matters because boundaries drawn by chemistry do not always match those drawn by anatomy or cell type. Each of the 539 regions can be thought of as a neighborhood with its own molecular character.
Scientists hope such an atlas will help explain how the healthy brain is organized and what goes wrong in neurological illness, although the map by itself does not prove any link to disease.
- assembled
- put together
- membrane
- a thin layer that surrounds a cell
- insulate
- to cover something to protect it or keep signals in
- abundant
- present in large amounts
- chart
- to map or record
- anatomy
- the structure of a body or organ
- atlas
- a collection of maps
- neurological
- relating to the nervous system
Level 4 - Advanced
A team has produced what is billed as the first detailed three dimensional map of lipids across the brain, resolving 539 distinct regions that are defined not by anatomy or cell type but by their fatty chemistry, according to ScienceDaily on October 13.
Lipids occupy a curious position in neuroscience. They form the membranes of every cell, sheathe the nerve fibers that carry signals, and constitute a large share of the brain's dry mass, yet genes and proteins have long claimed most of the attention because they are easier to catalogue.
A volumetric lipid atlas changes that calculus. If regions defined by lipid composition only partly coincide with those defined by cell types or anatomical landmarks, as one might expect, the map offers an orthogonal way of carving up the organ and a baseline against which pathology can be compared.
Caution is warranted. A map describes distribution, not mechanism, and it does not by itself establish that any lipid pattern causes or predicts disease; that will demand follow up studies in tissue from healthy and affected brains.
- billed
- described or advertised
- resolving
- distinguishing clearly
- constitute
- to make up
- catalogue
- to list systematically
- volumetric
- relating to volume in three dimensions
- calculus
- a method of reasoning, used here figuratively
- orthogonal
- independent of and at right angles to another approach
- pathology
- the study or presence of disease
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