by
Kathy Mahdoubi, Senior Correspondent | March 04, 2009
The precision and versatility of modeling far exceeds methods used by other disciplines to document brain activity, like electroencephalography (EEG), which tracks brainwaves but provides "a funky average," and high-resolution microscopy, which focuses on too finite of an area, Hereld says.
Hereld also works in tandem with Wim van Drongelen, who leads the partner research at the University of Chicago Hospitals' epilepsy center. It's here that they try to recreate the simulated findings with resected tissues and the various excitatory and inhibitory biochemical agents that trigger and propagate seizures, particularly those in pediatric patients.
"The folks in the lab as well as the clinic have an array of these constituents they can work with," says Hereld.
The project is already testing conventional wisdom. It is a commonly held theory that seizures are brought on by a high level of activity in the brain, but the research at Argonne points toward the opposite. Epileptiform activity is shown to be more associated with low levels or "strength" of biochemical agents.
"At each of our stopping points we observed the behavior and discovered somewhat surprising results by turning down the strength," says Hereld.
Funding for the project comes from U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Other neural modeling projects include IBM's Blue Brain Project in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a joint venture into artificial brains at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA.
Chartered in 1946, the Argonne National Laboratory was named the country's first national laboratory. It is currently one of the U.S. Department of Energy's largest research centers.
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