image: Simulation of artificial brain tissue sample: The transmitted light intensity (background) was simulated for a model of two crossing nerve fiber bundles (background), computed with a finite-difference time-domain algorithm and high-performance computing.
Understanding the brain's many functions requires knowing its architecture. Polarized light imaging is a powerful method for characterizing the architecture of nerve fibers in the brain. Researchers have used tissue scattering to improve this imaging method and recreate an accurate three-dimensional image of brain connectivity, in particular nerve fiber crossings. Menzel et al. used biophysical models and experimental tests on a variety of post-mortem brain tissue samples. They found specific differences in how light traveled through tissue regions with different nerve fiber organizations. Their results could enhance scientists' ability to conceptualize the brain's architecture by allowing them to build three-dimensional images of brain nerve fiber arrangements.