Indian Brain Templates developed at NIMHANS

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.