UPSC Articles
Indian Brain Templates developed at NIMHANS
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Achievements of Indians in Science and Technology;
In news
- A team of neuroscientists from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) has developed Indian Brain Templates (IBT) and a brain atlas.
Key takeaways
- Neuroscientists studied over 500 brain scans of Indian patients to develop five sets of Indian Brain Templates (IBT) and a brain atlas.
- IBT provides a scale that will measure an Indian Brain.
- Brain Atlas has been developed for five age groups covering late childhood to late adulthood (six to 60 years).
- These new population and age-specific Indian brain templates will allow more reliable tracking of brain development and ageing.
- They will provide more precise reference maps for areas of interest in individual patients with neurological disorders like strokes, brain tumours, and dementia.
- These will also help pool information more usefully in group studies of the human brain and psychological functions.
- These will aid in understanding of psychiatric illnesses like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, substance dependence, schizophrenia, and mood disorders.
Do you know?
- Brain Template is a gross representation from various brain images to understand brain functionality in diseased conditions.
- The Montreal Neurological Index (MNI) template that India currently uses is based on Caucasian brains, which are different from Asian brains.
