Hasta La Gadget!

McLean Hospital Guest Blogger
Bill Carlezon, PhD

The human brain is a world unto itself and still holds great potential for discovery. When we describe its structure and functionality, we often refer to the left and right hemispheres and the four lobes–frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal. There are, however, many smaller, distinct regions within our mind, each with its own specialization.

History of Brain Mapping

Up to this point, mapping the brain has largely been a slow process. It started in the 1860s, when Pierre Paul Broca, MD, correlated speech control with a specific area of the cerebral cortex (the brain’s outer layer), a region now described as Broca’s area. Later in the 19th century, several other distinct regions of the cortex were identified, and in 1907, neurologist Korbinian Brodmann published hand-drawn diagrams and descriptions of 52 brain regions. Since that time, however, additions to the knowledge base about the brain’s geography had been modest–until this July.

The trend changed when a group of scientists created a map that outlines 180 distinct areas within each hemisphere of the brain. Significantly, almost 100 areas in each hemisphere were previously undefined. This is a notable advance in our understanding of the brain, but it also demonstrates how much more we have to learn.

A New View of the Brain

This new view of the brain is akin to having a world map where continents have been subdivided into countries for the first time. Defining these sub-regions pushes us forward, giving us a new baseline from which to dig deeper into our brain’s inner workings and getting us closer to a street map view of the mind.

The next steps will involve defining what each region does, how they are organized internally, and how these various regions do or do not interact with each other (Do they function in isolation or do they work together?). Scientists also will explore whether there are still more regions, hidden within the regions they have already discovered. This work will take years, but the new map will help to get us there sooner.

Geography is not only the study of places and their physical properties, but also the relationships among these environments. Similarly, we map the brain with the goal of not only understanding each region’s unique properties, but also the relationships among these regions. As with our planet, the more we understand about the brain’s geography–drilling down toward the cellular level–the better equipped we will be to take care of that world.

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Bill Carlezon, PhD, is the chief of the Division of Basic Neuroscience and the director of the Behavioral Genetics Laboratory at McLean Hospital. He is a professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has received several awards for his research, including an Independent Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from George W. Bush, and the Jacob P. Waletzky Award for Innovative Research in Drug Addiction and Alcoholism from the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). Carlezon is editor-in-chief of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Autism Speaks.

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PHILADELPHIA ― The Democratic National Convention introduced America to the longtime leader of North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, the fiery Rev. William Barber, on Thursday.

The Moral Monday movement has sought to highlight the extreme swing to the right that North Carolina has taken, despite its status as a purple state. A tea-party-occupied GOP has gone after LGBTQ rights, attacked the storied university system, slashed social spending, implemented strict voter ID laws and removed police camera footage from the public record.

Barber, the president of North Carolina’s NAACP, began his speech by linking faith and morality to progressivism before issuing a call for “a revival at the heart of our democracy.”

“When we fight for 15 [on minimum wage] and a union and universal health care and public education and immigrant rights and [LGBTQ] rights, we are reviving the heart of our democracy,” he said. “When we develop tax and trade policies that no longer funnel our prosperity to the wealthy few, we are reviving the heart of our democracy.”

“When we hear the legitimate discontent of Black Lives Matter and come together to renew justice in our criminal justice system, we are embracing our deepest moral values and reviving the heart of our democracy,” Barber continued.

Barber has a rare ability to bring a fire-and-brimstone style yet still appeal to secular liberals, connecting the social justice tradition of the black church to the broader left, but also explicitly making room for non-believers and activists of other faiths ― or, unusually from the stage of a national convention, especially from the mouth of a preacher, “those who have no faith.”

Barber, who has a significant following in progressive quarters, vouched for Clinton, but added that it’s up to grassroots advocates to continue pressing her to do the right thing.

“When I hear Hillary’s voice and her positions, I hear and I know that she is working to embrace our deepest moral values ― and we should embrace her,” Barber said. “But let me be clear … she nor any person can do it alone. The watchword of this democracy and the watchword of faith is we. The heart of our democracy is on the line this November and beyond.”

Watch his speech above.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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