Mentor: Yatin Azad
Project Members: Abhinaya, Bhuvan, Debaditya, Kunal, Vatsal
Abstract:
One of the most complex and least-understood organs in the body is the brain. We do know its main components which are primarily neurons which are connected to each other via synapses. However, the wonder of the brain not lies in what a single neuron can do but based on what the brain achieves as a result of the collaboration of thousands of neurons in networks.
A connectome is a structural and functional map of the brain. On an expansive and huge scale, developing a human connectome will be the next big thing in the medical industry, diagnosing various diseases, behavioural and mental and in the (data) analysis of the plethora of data our brains collect every waking and sleeping second - a complete A new way to look at neuroscience.
This project seeks to understand what the connectome is and develop the modern tools required to study it. Through this project, we have looked at various the biological organization of neurons and the higher structures they form. We have looked into various neuroimaging techniques that are involved. We also looked into the auditory system in humans; the visual system in insects, and in more detail the olfactory system in Drosophila.
We have modelled the Drosophila olfactory system (Mittal et al.) and have tried to show that identification of odours need not be a feature that is learnt.