Art of Neuroscience 2017 Submissions

Art of Neuroscience 2017
Selected Submissions

Brain Buds
By:
Olivia N. Auferkorte and Diana T. Karnas-Skrypzak (Germany)
Description:
Hand-crafted jewelry and original artworks inspired from the Neurosciences,
accompanied by labels explaining the scientific concept behind them in simple words.

The Neuroscience of Gender Stereotyping
By:
Adam Baker (Simon Fraser University, Canada)
Description:
What is happening when we are viewing a social norm that conforms with and violates
our established social norms. Here we graphically display the basis of our research by
showing different reactions within the Event-Related Brain potential of viewing congruent
and incongruent gender stereotypes.
Quote from newspaper on my neuroscience art: “As a PhD student in neuroscience, XXX
XXX has to deal with explaining his research to others all the time. XXX is hoping to make
his work more digestible for the general public: he aims to build a bridge between the
hard sciences and people. Using graphic artwork, XXX is able to creatively present his
discoveries on the human brain.”

Basket of CPUs; Oil on canvas (60 x 49.5 cm)
By:
Albert Barqué-Dura (City University of London, UK)
Description:
The artistic fruit of Artificial Intelligence (Computational Creativity) is a growing area of research and is increasingly
seeping into the public consciousness. Neural Networks and Machine Learning techniques are used to achieve
these goals, which are a computational approach used in computer science and other research disciplines based
on a large collection of neural units (artificial neurons), loosely mimicking the way a biological brain solves problems
with large clusters of biological neurons connected by axons.
I recently performed a “battle” with an Artificial Intelligence machine with creative capabilities (‘The Painting Fool’, by
Prof. Simon Colton). Which of the two was going to be considered more creative? And how to scientifically measure
it? The machine uses a mixture of machine learning, machine vision, artificial intelligence and computational
creativity software to exhibit behaviours that involve skill, appreciation, imagination, intentionality, accountability and
learning. I produced a provocative new piece: ‘Basket of CPUs’. Salvador Dalí painted ‘Basket of Bread’ in 1945.
The original painting depicted a heel of a loaf bread in a basket, precariously situated on the edge of an uncovered
table, against a starkly black backdrop, an omen to its own sacrificial destruction. This environment created the
mystical, paroxysmic feeling of a situation beyond our ordinary notion of the real. ‘Basket of CPUs’ is a
reinterpretation of Dalí’s painting in our Digital Age. Here, CPUs are depicted as “The New Bread”. A Central
Processing Unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry that carries out the instructions of a computer program by
performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control and input/output operations specified by the instructions. Was I
creative enough by replicating an old piece of artwork and changing just one significant element in the whole
painting? Was being provocative the only way to show my “human dimension” in front of a machine? Was this a
victory for the human or for the machine? Are there any winners from this competition? Do we need/want any? This
experience taught me that artificial intelligence offers the artist something beyond an assistant or pupil: a new
creative collaborator, not a competitor.

Milky Way
By:
Kirsten Bohmbach (University of Bonn Medical School, Germany)
Description:
The image shows the axons of dentate gyrus granule cells (mossy fibers) in a coronal
section of the CA3 region of the mouse hippocampus. The corresponding dentate gyrus
granule cells were labeled by stereotactic injection of a Prox1-cre mouse line with two
viruses, containing two floxed fluorescent proteins each. Thereby each neuron expresses
an individual combination of the four fluorescent proteins BFP, YFP, mCherry and TFP.
This way one can distinguish individual cells, a technique known as brain bow. The image
is an overlay of four confocal images, one for each fluorescent protein expressed.
The image has been submitted to the Bonn Brain 3 Art Competition 2017 and has been
awarded the 3rd price.

Klimt’s Glomeruli
By:
Oliver Braubach (Korean Institute of Science & Technology, South Korea)
Description:
Mouse olfactory system consists of hundreds of glomeruli which are the first processing
centre for odours. Glomeruli are regions which are cell body free. They are, however,
abundant with neuropil, not only from olfactory receptor neurons, but also interneurons
and mitral cells. In this image, we are looking at the glomerular layer of the mammalian
olfactory bulb. Glomeruli are represented as dark areas which are surrounded by a variety
of interneurons. Each colour indicates different type of interneurons (red for TH+ , yellow
for GAD65 and cyan for DAPI).

Microglial social network
By:
Claudio Bussi (National University of Cordoba, Argentina)
Description:
The image shows several microglial cells in culture doing cellular-cellular
contacts.Microglial cells are a specialised population of macrophages that are found in
the central nervous system (CNS). They remove damaged neurons and infections and
are important for maintaining the health of the CNS.

Time to say goodbye
By:
Description:
The image shows microglial cells (green) that incorporated alpha-synuclein fibrils (red).
Alpha-synuclein is a protein that aggregates to form insoluble fibrils in pathological
conditions characterized by Lewy bodies, such as Parkinson's disease, dementia with
Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy.A dead microglial cell that released its content
is shown in blue, this material is potentially toxic and could contribute to cellular damage.

Tiled autophagy
By:
Description:
Electron microscope image showing a microglial lysosome (left, big vesicle) and a double-
membrane autophagosome (right, small vesicle) in close proximity.Autophagy is an
intracellular degradation system that delivers cytoplasmic constituents to the lysosome.
As an essential process to maintain cellular homeostasis and functions, autophagy is
responsible for the lysosome-mediated degradation of damaged proteins and organelles,
and thus misregulation of autophagy can result in a variety of pathological conditions in
human beings.The image captured the instant before lysosomal fusion.

Memory Encoder
By:
Jun-Hyeong Cho (University of California Riverside, USA)
Description:
This image shows ventral CA1 hippocampal (vCA1) neurons that project to either the
mPFC (green) or amygdala alone (red), as well as vCA1 neurons that project to both
areas (yellow). The vCA1 neurons were labeled using a dual retrograde viral tracing
approach. Our recent research suggest that these double-projecting neurons are
preferentially activated in encoding fear memory for a context associated with an aversive
event.
This image was chosen as a cover art of the May 10 issue of the Journal of
Neuroscience, an official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/19/4868?iss=19

Texture and Color
By:
Ghoorchian Kiumarc
Description:
Texture and Color : are through in humans body from head to hands palm on a canvas .

The Meaning of Art In Neuroscience
By:
Ghoorchian Kiumarc
Description:
The Meaning of Art In Neuroscience : the meaning of art is seperated by illustration

Chromatic Connectivity
By:
Gabriel Girard (EPFL, Switzerland)
Description:
Tractography is the algorithmic procedure that estimates white matter pathways using
directional information from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.
Tractography produces sequences of three-dimensional spatial points called streamlines.
A streamline represents an estimation of the white matter pathway between two
connected brain regions. The image "Chromatic Connectivity" shows thousands of
streamlines in a coronal view. Each streamlines is colored using the orientation of the
vector connecting both of its extremities (left-right: red, posterior-anterior:green, superior-
anterior: blue). Transparency is applied following the local streamline density, making
dense regions of streamlines appear through sparse regions. In the end, the image shows
the estimated connectivity of the brain highlighting the main orientation of the white matter
pathways of the brain.

Peace of mind with the Vibratome
By:
Beatriz Godinho (Champalimaud, Portugal)
Description:
This picture always reminds me of one of the most challenging moments I went through
as a Masters Student here in the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. I have always
been passionate about the human mind and its functioning, so I always wanted to join the
Neuroscience Programme of Champalimaud. Finally this year, I joined a great lab to do
my Master Thesis Project. And after a few weeks of being here, and learning so much
about brain structure, animal surgery, programing, it came the moment when I had to slice
an entire brain on the vibratome, by myself! It was a great challenge, as I had to place
every thin slice over the glass, and it took me 12 hours to make it! But in the process,
besides helping my understanding of brain structure, I could experience a new state of
mind – Zen State -, that you can only acquire when doing the same repeating and
thorough task over and over, for hours and hours.

Frozen Neural Movements
By:
Alex Gomez-Marin (CSIC-UMH, Spain)
Description:
Static representations of movement. Computation of the distances between all pairs of
frames of videos corresponding to different biological and physical systems: a mouse
running in the lab, a ball bouncing on the ground, birds flying in the sky, a worm foraging
in a petri dish, clouds moving in a sunny day, a rat rearing in a Skinner box, an apple
falling from a tree (top row, from left to right) and a fly wing beating, a tree blown by the
wind, a larva crawling on agar, a car racing view, fingers playing tricks, a zebrafish
hunting its breakfast, a fly climbing in a food vial (bottom row, from left to right). Absolute
time flows vertically, while time relative to the present for each frame runs horizontally
from left to right denoting the past and the future respectively. The amount of global pixel
intensity change ranges from red (no change), to green (some change), to blue (huge
change). Frozen Movements allow to visualize behavior without “killing” it; they are a way
to see time in space through light, aiding neuroscientists to study animal behavior —
capturing it in all its dimensionality and dynamics— to then dissect its neural bases.

The building blocks of the human mind
By:
Natalia Goriounova (VU University, the Netherlands)
Description:
In my research, I am interested in how the structure and function of human neurons
contributes to human intelligence. This is exactly what I tried to show in this image – the
researcher studying the mystery of the human brain by looking at the separate building
blocks and at the same time at the whole human brain.
The blocks are made of the images of real biocytin-filled human neurons from my study. I
only adjusted the colors leaving the beauty of the cells untouched.

Above and Below
By:
Luke Hammond (University of Queensland, Australia)
Description:
"Above and Below" reveals the fine processes of neurons within the brain. This image
was captured at high-resolution in 3D using state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy at
the University of Queensland's, Queensland Brain Institute. Each of these branching
filaments are approximately 100 times finer than a single human hair. To create this image
I have used varying colours to reflect the changing depths of the neuronal processes as
they extend through the brain. The tissue sample for this image was prepared by Prof.
Linda Richards lab at the Queensland Brain Institute.

Closer
By:
Description:
"Closer" reveals the fine overlapping branches of two adjacent brain cells. This image
was captured at high-resolution in 3D using state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy at
the University of Queensland's, Queensland Brain Institute. Each of these branching
filaments are approximately 100 times finer than a single human hair. To create this image
I have used varying colours to reflect the changing depths of the neuronal processes as
they extend through the brain.

Within the In-between
By:
Description:
"Within the in-between" reveals the brain cells and their complex interwoven processes.
To create this image varying colours have been used to reflect the changing depths of the
neuronal processes as they extend through the brain. This image was captured at high-
resolution in 3D using state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy at the University of
Queensland's, Queensland Brain Institute.

Fifty shades of brain
By:
Sandra Hanekamp (University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands)
Description:
This brain icon is created from a sagittal slice of my T1-weighted Magnetic Resonance
Image.

The Brain
By:
Brennan Klein (Northeastern University, USA)
Description:
Description: Recently, I have found myself trying to analyze calcium imaging data from
cortical neurons of a mouse. The patterns of activity in these data were astonishing. In
front of me were hundreds of blob-like neurons, periodically bursting in a slow, greenish
glow, illuminating the sinewy connections between them. It was as if these cells were
collectively breathing, as if they were a giant mass of organized chaos, little starlings
flocking and unflocking, under no central command, loosely maintaining order. The most
beautiful patterns emerge during a massive migration of birds, and they emerge simply
from local interactions between the component parts of the system. This observation can
be powerfully described using principles from complexity science and methods from
network science, both of which have also richly informed the study of neuroscience in
recent years. It is an exciting time to be a scientist, and I have tried to convey my own
excitement in the details of every single part of this piece.

Cherry Blossoms and Neurons
By:
Nathanael Lee (Georgetown University, USA)
Description:
The top row shows cherry blossoms during the peak season in Washington, DC. The
picture was taken with a Sony Alpha DSLR camera. The bottom row shows neurons with
dendritic spines, captured through confocal microscopy. The structural homology between
the tree branches and the dendrites, as well as the flowers and the dendritic spines stood
out to me, and served as the motivation behind this piece.
This piece was submitted for NIH Beauty of Science Director’s Challenge.

Starry Night
By:
Christophe Leterrier (NICN, France)
Description:
Sample: Hippocampal neurons after two days in culture, fixed and labeled for
microtubules (cyan) and actin (orange).
Imaging: Mosaic (tiled) acquisition with a 40X objective on an epifluorescent microscope
(Zeiss).
Post-processing: Isolated neurons or group of neurons have been manually shifted
relative to the others in order to obtain a more regular image
Scale: The whole image (8400x6300 pixels) represents an area of 1365x1024 microns. At
300 dpi, the image dimensions are 71x53 cm (28x21 inches).

Intimate connection
By:
Description:
Sample: Hippocampal neurons after 22 days in culture, fixed and labeled for actin
(orange) and synapsin (blue).
Imaging: STORM super-resolution image for actin combined with ta diffraction limited
TIRF image (Nikon microscope)
Scale: The whole image (3964x3420 pixels) represents an area of 31.7x27.4 microns. At
300 dpi, the image dimensions are 33.6x29 cm (13.2x11.4 inches).

Glial Etching
By:
Description:
Sample: Glia in an hippocampal neuronal culture after 7 days in culture, fixed and labeled
for actin (grey, inverted contrast).
Imaging: STORM super-resolution image (Nikon microscope)
300 dpi, the image dimensions are 19.9x19.9 cm (7.8x7.8 inches).
Attribution: The sample was prepared and the image acquired by Sonia Yousfi, an
undergrad in the lab

Neuronal City Lights
By:
Description:
Sample: Hippocampal neuronal culture after 7 days in culture, fixed and labeled for actin
(cytoskeleton, orange), map2 (cell body and dendrites, blue) and synapsin (synapses,
green).
Imaging: Deconvolved Apotome image (Zeiss microscope, 63X objective)
300 dpi, the image dimensions are 17.3x17.3 cm (6.8x6.8 inches).

Lighting up protein degradation in neurons
By:
Ana Lopez Ramirez (University of Cambridge, UK)
Description:
This image is a representation of the classic MRI scan of a brain from a patient with
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) but is made from a mosaic of images of individual green
and red neurons in zebrafish. The areas in red correlate with the classic pattern of brain
tissue loss in FTD, with the healthy brain areas labelled green. The final image is made
from a composite of nearly 400 images of fluorescent neurons expressing the human Tau
protein fused to the photoconvertible protein Dendra (green in normal conditions and red
after photoconversion). Based on the fluorescence characteristics of Dendra, we have
developed a novel technique to analyse protein degradation and Tau clearance kinetics in
vivo for the first time. The analysis of these individual images demonstrated that the FTD-
associated Tau mutation A152T causes defective Tau clearance.

Tree of vision
By:
Maria Madeira (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
Description:
The Tree of Life is a metaphor used to describe the relationships between organisms,
both living and extinct, as described in a famous passage in Charles Darwin's On the
Origin of Species (1859).
This image presents our new conception, the Tree of Vision, formed by the retina and
optic nerve, as a form of connection between the brain and the world through its branches
and roots.
In fact, the retina is considered by many the window to the world, by leading to the
formation of images that allow us to know the world that surrounds us. The connection
with the brain is made through the optic nerve, formed by the axons of the retinal ganglion
cells, and which transmits the visual impulse the areas in the brain responsible by vision
processes.
The image represents the cell nuclei (dapi, gray scale) of retinal cells and the cells that
surround the optic nerve, in a retinal cryosection. This cell organization give us a
graphical visualization of a tree, which lead us to this new concept.

Coronal Slices
By:
Javier Masis (Harvard University, USA)
Description:
As a vision scientist, I am captivated by how our most distinctive sense works. The study of vision and visual art go
hand-in-hand. In many cases, impressive visual art, such as impressionism or cubism, has been predicated on
idiosyncrasies and principles of how our visual system works before they were discovered by scientists. One of
these idiosyncrasies is our uncanny ability to detect faces, even when there are none. In this collection, I was
surprised to discover faces in a surprisingly appropriate place — the brain. They span a wide range of emotions and
personalities, just as our brain is responsible for all of our emotions and personalities. And yet the pieces are
entirely a by-product of our visual system itself, for what lies before you are not faces at all, but incompletely stained
samples of a rat brain.
These pieces were created from the failure of a technique in development to stain a rat brain in its entirety with a
heavy metal called osmium. The osmium binds to the brain tissue and gives the brain contrast when the brain is
placed in a micro-CT machine, a machine that turns the sample 360 degrees while shooting x-rays at it, allowing us
to generate a 3-D reconstruction of the specimen. From this 3-D reconstruction, we can generate 2-D slices, which
is what you see before you. Had this particular attempt at the technique been successful, the negative spaces
inside the reconstructed slices that generate the impression of a face would not be present, for the osmium would
have penetrated the sample completely and generated contrast in those areas as well. The process allows us to
eavesdrop into the interior of an otherwise opaque structure, the brain, and inside it we see a wonderful world of
expressions, emotions and characters. And yet these characters do not at all exist in the sample; they only exist in
our brain.

Purple Tulip NMJ
By:
Andrew Moore (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Description:
This is an image of a mouse neuromuscular junction (NMJ) visualized with fluorescent
bungarotoxin (magenta) to label acetylcholine receptors and anti-neurofilament antibody
(green) to label the motor neuron.

Branching
By:
Julia Mueller (Univeristy of Bonn, Germany)
Description:
Astrocyte used to be seen as "brain glue" in former days but within the last years more
and more studies showed that astrocytes are communication partners of neurons.Severe
dysfunction of astrocytes in human brain cause neurological disorders such as
epilepsy.This picture shows how astrocytes (blue) enwrap blood vessels (left
handside).Astrocytes supply neurons (bottom part) by taking up glucose from the blood.
Furthermore via their astrocyte network they shuttle ions and neurotransmittersto ensure
a healthy environment in the brain.

Neuron from the brain grown in a dish
By:
Bart Nieuwenhuis (University of Cambridge, UK)
Description:
The brain is made up of billions of cells that link together to form a huge network.
Scientists can study single neurons, cells of the nervous system, by growing them in a
dish. This is one of the main methods used to understand how the brain works or to
discover new drugs for brain-related diseases. Neurons can be derived from the brain of
animal models, such as rat pups, and are kept in various liquids that will keep the cells
alive by imitating their normal surroundings in the brain. The neuron shown in the video
was kept in a dish for two weeks and was recorded using a microscope. Neurons are very
fragile and small, have a look at the scale bar! Neurons that are grown in a dish keep their
normal structure but become more flat than they would be in the brain. A neuron is made
up of a cell body with many branches. The cell body is the core of the neuron and
contains a nucleus, which holds the DNA of the cell inside. Almost all the branches
"receive" signals from other neurons in the brain (dendrites), while only one branch on the
neuron "sends" signals to other neurons in the network (the axon). Can you guess which
one of these branches is the axon?

Sin Astro
By:
Brice Ravon, Nathalie Rouach, Armelle Rancillac (INSERM, France)
Description:
A red labeled dendritic process is passing through a white astrocyte in mouse
hippocampal CA1 area.

The Histologists (before the Neuron Doctrine)
By:
Jacob Reimer (Baylor College of Medicine, USA)
Description:
Before the arguments started, Santiago and Camillo used to play music together every
Saturday.

New neurons born in a cradle of stars
By:
José Rivera-Alvarez (IFC-UNAM, Mexico)
Description:
The image represents the travel of young neurons, also called neuroblasts (red) in his
path to the olfactory bulb, where they incorporate as mature neurons. In green color, the
astrocytes forming the mature tissue, provide factors for the correct functioning of the
brain, and in this case, for the correct incorporation of neurons.

The Creation of Inspiration
By:
Robin Scharrenberg (University of Hamburg, Germany)
Description:
"Only after the intellect has planned
The best and highest, can the ready
hand
Take up the brush and try all things
received."
- Michelangelo
This image is inspired by Michelangelos "The Creation of Adam". Depicted in it is a
montage of two pyramidal cells from the upper layer of the somatosensory cortex of mice
brains. With an in-utero electroporation approach the cells were labeled with GFP. These
cells were then submitted to confocal imaging and
to give the resulting image the look of an old fresco it is displayed in false colors, with
processes in the background acting as the blemishes of an aged fresco.
The Contribution is an interpretation of "The Creation of Adam" with processes of the two
neurons pointing towards each other to form a "synapse" so the "divine spark" can pass.
The resulting change in activity enableing inspiration to take form.

Beautiful bladder
By:
Anna Schueth (Maastricht University, the Netherlands)
Description:
This image shows the nerves (green, autofluorescent) within the bladder wall of an aged
mouse. Also a blood vessel in the centre of this image and muscle bundles (red, stained
with Sulforhodamine B) are shown.
This image was taken with a two-photon microscope and shows that the beautiful
innervation of the bladder can be visualized label-free. The nerves within the bladder wall
are crucial for a proper functioning of the bladder: storage and expulsion of urine.
Especially in the elderly population bladder dysfunctions occur very often.

Diagonal
By:
Dana Simmons (University of Chicago, USA)
Description:
This image shows a cerebellar Purkinje neuron fully loaded with fluorescent, calcium-
sensitive dye. To create this image, I used confocal microscope to collect a z-stack of
images in order to capture the depth of the neuron. I collapsed the stack into one image,
where all the dendrites can be viewed together. Purkinje neurons exhibit some of the
most complex and beautiful dendritic branching in the nervous system. Of note, similar
branched patterns can be found all over nature – in trees, antlers, coral, decision-making
networks, rivers, and lightning. The color in this image represents the amount of dye in
each part of the neuron. The color outside the neuron represents the texture of the brain
slice in which the neuron was embedded.
Neuroscience Concept
The goal of my experiment with this neuron was to study the calcium currents passing
through dendritic spines in order to learn about calcium signaling during synaptic
transmission in a mouse model of autism. The calcium-sensitive dye travels with the
calcium ions, providing me with a visual indicator of where the current goes and how it
passes through spines. I am interested in spines, because they are one place where
excitatory synapses are found in the cerebellum.

Flames
By:
Dana Simmons (University of Chicago, USA)
Description:
This image shows a cerebellar Purkinje neuron that I have loaded with fluorescent dye in
order to understand how calcium moves through the neuron. Purkinje neurons have
fantastically branched dendrites, which is where they receive input from the other neurons
in their circuit. Here, the dye has diffused throughout the entire Purkinje neuron so that
we can visualize all the intricate branching, in addition to the dendritic spines.
Neuroscience Concept
The goal of my experiment with this neuron was to study the calcium currents passing
through dendritic spines in order to learn about calcium signaling during synaptic
transmission in a mouse model of autism. The calcium-sensitive dye travels with the
calcium ions, providing me with a visual indicator of where the current goes and how it
passes through spines. I am interested in spines, because they are one place where
excitatory synapses are found in the cerebellum.

Slicing the rat connectome
By:
Michel Sinke (UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands)
Description:
Our non-invasive diffusion MRI-based quantification of whole-brain axonal connections
combines the power of sensitive, non-invasive tissue probing, with accurate multi
resolution tract reconstructions, by means of multi-shell global tractography, in rat brain
left in the skull. This tissue-friendly method creates unique potential for longitudinal
studies. The simultaneous access to local microstructure information and global
stereotaxic orientation already provided us with unique insights in the axonal olfactory
bulb pathways in the rats, in the cerebellar topology and the complex fiber bundle
crossings in cortico-striatal circuits. This image shows a sagittal slice of the rat brain
clearly visualising brain structures such as the corpus callosum, cingulum bundle,
brainstem and the arbor vitae of the cerebellum.

A portrait of retinal ganglion cells and their sorted spikes
By:
Martino Sorbaro (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Description:
We show, on the same picture, a small population of
YFP-labelled retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their extracellularly
recorded spiking activity during visual stimulation of this retina. The
image is composed of microphotographs of a retinal patch, obtained by confocal
microscopy. Superimposed, as coloured points, are
electrical events recorded by a multielectrode array and localised in
space using an algorithm we present in our paper. The different colours
of the dots indicate the assignment to different sources, corresponding
to single neurons, using a spike sorting method we developed
specifically for these data. It is evident that clusters of electrical
events are indeed located in the vicinity of RGCs, and in some cases
close to the putative axon initial segment location of a neuron, where
the largest currents are expected.

Orbiting around the frontal inputs and outputs
By:
Tuce Tombaz (Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology, Norway)
Description:
Orbitofrontal cortex, a small structure on the most rostral rim of the rodent brain, projects
to secondary motor cortex (red cell bodies) and receives projections from primary visual
cortex (turquoise axons). With the right kind of eye, you can start to fathom the immensity
of neuronal circuitry organization as you observe the visual inputs engulfing the motor
output cells.

The Neuronal Forest
By:
Cristiana Vagnoni (University of Oxford, UK)
Description:
Inside our brains, vast networks of cells "neurons” underlie our every thought and
behaviour. Neurons can either excite or inhibit each other. Inhibitory neurons act as the
brain’s traffic controllers, regulating the information flow within these networks. Pictured is
a slice of through the brain’s somatosensory cortex, the area responsible for the touch
sensation. Coloured in cyan are a special type of inhibitory neurons, which can be
identified by the presence of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). Primarily responsible
for controlling other inhibitory neurons, the VIP containing neurons are the traffic
controllers of the traffic controllers themselves. The nuclei of the surrounding brain cells
are coloured in magenta.
Submitted to:Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics Image Competition 2017,
Runner Up (Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher, 16 February 2017)Through the Looking Glass
(Image Exhibition in Oxford University Parks) (No money prize received)

Colorfield of brain processes
By:
Myrrhe van Spronsen (Yale University, USA)
Description:
This oil pastel drawing represents the electric activity of the brain.
The colours are almost digital pixels reflecting microscopic activity of the molecular
processes magnified. Possibly you can imagine that the different colours represent
thoughts and emotions produced in the brain.
Also a link can be made to expression data of genes regulating brain activity among
which the microRNAs that fine-tune processes such as plasticity and neurite outgrowth.

The neuron between blue and green
By:
Description:
This is a confocal image of motor neuron of the spinal cord.
We have used fluorescent triple labelling, showing red-labelled TRAK1, green-labelled
Cytochrome C, and the nuclear DNA labelled with DAPI with blue emission.
This figure is part of a study that has been published in Neuron. The TRAK1 protein that
we have extensively studied is present in motor neurons of the spinal cord colocalizing
with mitochondria. Our studies show that TRAK proteins play important roles in the
regulation of mitochondrial transport in the nervous system, where energy demands are
high.
The image is showing the beauty of nature on the cellular level. The association with
abstract modern art was striking.

The neuron and mitochondria
By:
Description:
This illustration shows a modified confocal image of cultured hippocampal neurons from a
rat. In this image you can see the neuronal cell morphology, including the cell body, the
branching dendritic tree and spines. Mitochondria are visualized in red. The TRAK protein
is visualized in green. This is an adaptor protein that regulates mitochondrial movement.

Harmony in Numbers
By:
Marvin Weigand (Ernst Strungmann Institute, Germany)
Description:
In this work we show that according to optimal wiring principles neural maps appear
suddenly with increasing cell numbers (here along the spiral towards the middle) even as
the underlying connectivity remains unchanged. Each dot represents a neuron at its
specific location and colors indicate the feature tuning of these neurons, e.g. their
orientation preference in the visual cortex.

Lost Memories
By:
Anum Zahra (independent artist)
Description:
Acrylic painting (40x50cm) depicting various aspects of Alzheimer’s disease at gross and
cellular level. Brain sections at the upper and lower edge showing brain shrinkage making
the sulci and gyri more prominent, enlargement of the ventricles and cortical shrinkage.
The center shows neuronal network with beta amyloid plagues (orange) and dying nerve
cells containing tangles (yellow).

Baby Braniac
By:
Description:
Painting (Acrylic 40x50) inspired during my own prenatal ultrasound. In-utero fetal image
with a distinct focus upon the brain. The painted connectome depicts the immense
potential a brain processes even before birth.

Hemispheric Heterogenecity
By:
Description:
The versatility of brain depicted in an array of styles. The two hemispheres are painted on
two separate canvases (20x50cm). Beginning clockwise from the top freestyle art with
gold leaf, CT scan, high contrast CT, connectome in two styles and gross anatomical
brain image.

Talking Neurons
By:
Description:
It is a small (23x30cm) acrylic painting. Neurons in a color splash, showing a neuronal
transmission. Surrounding are the molecular structures of neurotransmitters e.g.
serotonin, epinephrine etc.

The brain across the ages
By:
India Cawley-Gelling (Edinburgh University, UK)
Description:

Cortex, 2017
By:
Virginia Russolo (Oxford University, UK)
Description:
Through the image submitted I aim to draw visual parallels between the anatomical
structure of the brain and that of a tree. The image gives the idea of seeing a dissection of
two trees that complement each other like the hemispheres of the brain. The most outer
layer of the cerebrum is the cortex which is a term used in botany as well for the outer
layer of tissue, the tree bark in this case. Finally, the intricate network of capillaries
resembles that of the nervous system, always aware of the tiniest changes in our
environment.

Cajal Dawn
By:
Richard Roche (Maynooth University, Ireland)
Description:
This painting (acrylic on deep canvas) celebrates the beauty of the micro-anatomical
drawings of neurons made by Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934). Cajal produced his
exquisite drawings from memory after hours of staring at the structures under his
microscope. Here, one of his earliest and most iconic cell illustrations is reproduced, set
against the fiery colours of the morning sunrise, as a as a tribute to Cajal’s images which
heralded the dawn of modern neuroscience.

Brain Wedging
By:
Katherine Russell (The University of Edinburgh, UK)
Description:
I have always felt a deep and profound connection to the aesthetic of the cellular build up
of the human body. The complex form and vibrant colour used to reflect these
microscopic forms to the larger world being fundamental to my art practice. I am
consistently inspired by magnifying these forms and approaching them from a sculptural
perspective, often focusing on the cellular build up of various diseases and how
something negative can be translated into a large and beautiful art object challenging the
relationship between art and science. Neuroscience and the cellular build up of the
human brain inspires an extensive part of my practice as I often explore the links between
the improvement of mental wellbeing and ceramic sculpture. The physical act of creating
something using clay soothes and distracts the mind. Subsequently, I created a small
army of individual white stoneware ‘synapses’ that proceed to interlock when placed close
to one another to replicate the cellular build up of the human brain. The works were then
coated in a low-fire, metallic stoneware glaze and iron oxide to reflect the vibrant colours
often used in the digital replication of cells. This piece approaches art and science in a
more traditional way bringing the forms back to a very basic state moving away from the
complex digital drawings often used to recreate complex micro-forms.

Milky Way
By:
Kirsten Bohmbach (University of Bonn, Germany)
Description:
The image shows the axons of dentate gyrus granule cells (mossy fibers) in a coronal
section of the CA3 region of the mouse hippocampus. The corresponding dentate gyrus
granule cells were labeled by stereotactic injection of a Prox1-cre mouse line with two
viruses, containing two floxed fluorescent proteins each. Thereby each neuron expresses
an individual combination of the four fluorescent proteins BFP, YFP, mCherry and TFP.
This way one can distinguish individual cells, a technique known as brain bow. The image
is an overlay of four confocal images, one for each fluorescent protein expressed.
The image has been submitted to the Bonn Brain 3 Art Competition 2017 and has been
awarded the 3rd price.

Retinogenicualte Projection
By:
Carlos Aizenman (Brown University, USA)
Description:
This is one from a series of “Neurodoodles” – digital collages incorporating 19th C
anatomical drawings by Santiago Ramón y Cajal with new elements relevant to the neural
circuitry described. Retinogeniculate Projection starts with Ramón y Cajal’s drawing of the
retina and represents the projection between the eye and the lateral geniculate nucleus of
the thalamus, a central relay station in the brain’s visual pathways.

Batik Retinal Neuron
By:
Michele Banks, independent artist, USA)
Description:
My artwork is inspired by neuroscience in two major ways. First, the huge scientific and
technological advances in imaging, from Brainbows to MAP-seq, are gradually making
available clearer and more accurate images of the brain, its structure and functions.
These images are so beautiful on their own that they have inspired me to make paintings
like Batik Retinal Neuron (1) and Black and White Neurons (2).
Second, the growth of neuroscience research – for example, studies linking the brain and
the gut microbiome - encourages us to think in new ways about the nature of cognition
and emotion. My brain slice paintings, such as Root and Branch Brain (3) and Neural
Pathways (4), explore these ideas in a more metaphorical way.

Black and White Neurons
By:
Description:

Neural Pathways
By:
Description:

Mindless Process
By:
Krisztina Czika (Rietveld Academy, the Netherlands)
Description:
The project was inspired by the lecture, “If brains are computers, who designs the software?” by Daniel Dennett.
A philosophical approach related to neuroscience that was explained at the Royal Institution on 6th April, 2017.
His thoughts and examples shaped my conceptual art and design perspective.
We live in a society where technology has developed to such an extent because of our improved intelligence over
time. Questions, dreams and fantasies start to relate to each other, so I asked myself:
Would it be possible to recreate the nervous system with a technological process, like 3D printing?
Instead of using already existing 3D printing systems, I started autonomously working with chemistry and electricity.
My aim was to make these two elements communicate with each other to create an interpretation of the nervous
system. The process is simple: halogen lights using electricity provide heat that slowly warms up the glass. Since
glass has the advantage of remaining at a consistent heat, the wax is able to change consistency and melt. The
motion of dripping and melting creates “prints” and the shape of the prints are based on the heat settings.
While building the installation, in order to visualise how perikaryon and dendrites can be physically created, shape-
wise, I found that all the actions performed by the installation are examples of how our nervous system functions.
Today, the first intelligent designers in the tree of life (with reference to Daniel Dennett) are in a vulnerable position.
They are changing the world and holding a mirror up to the face of society, making people feel, reflect and question
existence. Yet, they are also in the position of being able to collaborate with science, explore the crossovers and
discover new perspectives.

Hey there, I’m here!
By:
Jose Esquivelzeta (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Description:
The image shows called the anterior commissure (horizontal fiber bundle in the middle), a
small and not well known bridge between both hemispheres that connects the olfactory
cortices. So, as part of my experiment, I performed a complicated surgery to section the
anterior commissure to prove that interhemispheric communication is needed to localize
smells. After the behavioral tasks I needed to confirm the lesions with the histology. In
green you see a myein stain, in blue a Nissl stain and in red DAPI. The first thing I saw in
the confocal microscope, following the junction of both hemispheres from bottom up, was
the shape of what it seemed a little hand saying, “hey there, I’m here!” and a few micras
up it was the intact anterior commissure of the control group.

Mossy fibre sprouting and astrogliosis in epileptogenesis
By:
Derek Chan (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Description:
Current epilepsy treatment aims to suppress seizure activity after the initial brain insult,
however, one third of the patients are resistant to the treatment. Therefore, a large body
of research moves towards investigating the pathology of epileptogenesis, the gradual
process of epilepsy development.
One of the theories is mossy fibre sprouting. It has been hypothesised that after the initial
insult, cell loss of the mossy cells in the dentate hilus renders the hippocampal network
hyperexcitable. The dentate gyrus acts as a gatekeeper of excitation inputs from the
perforant pathways. Granule cells in the granule cell layer originally project to the mossy
cells in the hilus. However, when mossy cell loss occurs, dendrites of the granule cells
(mossy fibres) could form aberrant connections, protruding to the molecular layer of the
dentate gyrus, termed mossy fibre sprouting. Mossy fibres of the granule cells terminate
on itself and has been proposed as a pathology in epileptogenesis.
Inflammation has also been implied in the process of epileptogenesis. It has been
suggested that after the initial insult, inflammation occurs and induces cell loss at the
hippocampus. On the other hand, cell loss could also induce further inflammatory events,
forming a vicious cycle. Here we look at astrogliosis, the level of reactive astrocytes which
is indicative for inflammatory response.

Transparent Complex Human Brain and Behavior
By:
Norberto Ribeirao Garcia-Cairasco (University of Sao Paulo, Brasil)
Description:
Our behaviour is seen from the outside as a mixture of forms, eventually reflex events
and emotions, usually as a response to internal and environmental challenges. However,
what make us humans depends greatly on the complexity of macro-, micro- and nano-
structures, all combined in spectacularly unique ways throughout cascades, circuits and
networks. None specific level of complexity explains it all, but a combination of them, from
which completely new functions emerge, not explained at all by the algebraic sum of the
separated parts. The brain is a complex system with emergent properties, sometimes
known, sometimes imagined throughout modelling. The allegoric drawing of a Human
Head, Brain and Heart, seen as a mixture of descriptive anatomy and histology, as well
as a microscopic model for research, invites us to think how Basic Neuroscience
(neurons, glia, processes) is needed to know the cell and molecular levels, Computational
Neuroscience (models of connections - connectome) is needed to play with models and
algorithms and advanced thinking and Clinical Neuroscience (face expression, emotions,
autonomic correlates) is the application of both to look for potential diagnosis and cure for
Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

Decision
By:
Maanasa Natrajan (Drexel University, USA)
Description:
Our brain keeps making decisions all the time. This picture shows the process of deciding
to quit smoking in the form of a court trial. Eyes seeing the cigarette packet, nose smelling
the smoke, ears listening to people sitting and smoking, saying ‘join us’ send the
evidences through sensory neurons to the neuron in a witness box that argues in favor of
smoking, on the other side stands a neuron in favor of lungs, stomach, heart, bones and
teeth that will suffer from smoking. The constitution of brain is made by knowledge the
person gains from books and symbols, his experience of suffering because of this habit,
and emotional reasons like his daughter. The judge neuron at the center gets impulses
from the neurons in the witness box, considers the information from the constitution and
decides that his family is more important than his smoking habit as shown by the
weighing scale, so it makes a judgement, which carries the electrical impulses through
other neurons to the motor neurons and to the muscles in the hands, legs and lips. The
legs walk away from the cigarette shop and away from the desire created by ears, nose
and eyes, towards the benefit of all his organs, while the hands drop the cigarette into the
trash, and the lip smiles rejoicing the decision of the court. Brain might be complex, but
this picture tries to explain decision making in simple terms using an analogy.

Molecular
By:
Siobhan McLaughlin (Edinburgh University, UK)
Description:
I became interested in this area after having a conversation with a friend about her
studies in molecular chemistry. She spoke about the interaction between molecules and
how another area of study, molecular physics, focuses more on the rules governing the
structure of molecules. Interaction and structure is something that these areas of science
share with art and so I wanted to create a piece that conveys these themes in an abstract
sense. Interesting interactions between colours are created on the canvas by the
juxtaposition of forms. Structure and linear forms are created underneath these colours by
the binding of fabric together, creating complexity.

Burst of Consciousness
By:
Simone Frettoli (Politecnico Milano, Italy)
Description:
A different way to see the Eeg from the brain could change the way we see the brain!The
Basis of this work start from an Eeg (electro encefalografy) of the Brain; the data from a
professional eeg set are visualized in their Poincairè portrait of the eeg sinusoidal
wave.The graphic shows 1 second (x axis) of registration between 0-20 Hz (y axis) of a
subject with a particulary developed Alfa frequency.This work shows how different can be
the developing of "patterns" in the mind, as it has been studied that patterns are different
in subjects also with developed Alfa frequency in their brain.This Study also led to
develop an auditory way to study Eeg, the sound match exactly what is seen in the
image, patterns of oscillatory systems.

There are many like you, but you are special
By:
Stefan Zweifel (INSERM, France)
Description:
In these days full of armed conflicts, crises, terroristic attacks and intolerance, we have to
remember who we, the people, are. We are many individuals different in color, religion
and lifestyle, but we are also extremely the same in belonging to mankind and in our
dependency to each other. The similarities of the humankind to a brain are striking.
Likewise the population of our equals, a brain consists of different cell lineages
possessing different skills and duties and even the members of a certain cell lineage are
divergent. All those different pieces belong to the very same brain and this brain needs all
of them to work properly and in synergy. Just like a brain the humankind can only survive
if all the single pieces work together and help each other. Similar to such a community of
brain cells, you are same like other humans. You neither count as something better, nor
something more important than the others.
However, within this whole world of sameness, everybody is special. Just like this
postnatally born GFP+ cortical neuron between the darkness of his GFP- neighbors,
everybody is special in the community of humankind. And so you are!

Art of Neuroscience 2017 Submissions

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