How The Brain Works - In Picture.

The brain uses chemicals to transmit information; the computer uses electricity. Even though electrical signals travel at high speeds in the nervous system, they travel even faster through the wires in a computer. The pictures below show how our brain working. Amazing!

A fragile balance: This image shows a series of MRI pictures from the brain of an individual with Fragile X Syndrome, the most common inherited form of autism.

Navigating axons: a circuitous route. This colorful picture shows the wiring in a developing brain. Axons (red) are the cables that neurons use to transmit their information, often over relatively long distances and taking highly circuitous routes. The other colours represent different areas of the brain

Circuit building block: Neurons have branched projections that extend from their cell body called dendrites which give the cells a tree-like appearance. It’s through these dendrites that neurons receive information from hundreds to thousands of other cells.

An electron’s view of the brain: Neurons talk to one another across a gap called the synaptic cleft, rather than being directly connected to one another. A trained eye can identify the wires that are transmitting messages and those that are receiving information in this picture.

Astrocyte: These star-shaped cells, or “astrocytes”, were once thought to be simple support cells for neurons. Now we know that they are much more important than this - they also help to create and maintain an environment in the brain that is optimised for electrical and chemical communication.

The seahorse - This is a close-up image of a particular area of the brain called the hippocampus, named from the Greek word for “seahorse” because of its shape.

Breakdown in communication: This image shows differences between a typical brain (left) and autism (right). The different colours identify different areas of the brain.

A fragile balance': This image shows a series of MRI pictures from the brain of an individual with Fragile X Syndrome, the most common inherited form of autism

High fidelity: This picture shows the difference in brain signals from a typical brain (left) and from a brain affected by a condition similar to Fragile X Syndrome, the most common inherited form of autism (right).

Encoding space: Our brains hold specialized neurons called grid cells that help us to keep track of where we are. This heat map shows the regions in space where an individual grid cell becomes active during exploration of a circular room.

'Wiring the brain': This is a detailed map of the brain wiring in a sleeping newborn baby (left) and an adult in their seventies (right), visualised using MRI.

Glial grandeur: At first glance this may look like a spider’s web but this web measures just 1/20 of a millimeter. It is made up of two types of brain cells – astrocytes in green and a white oligodendrocyte. These cells were originally thought of as the support cells for neurons but it is now known they are essential for many brain functions.

Regenerating spinal cord: Images such as this one, which shows the spinal cord from a zebrafish repairing itself, are helping scientists to study biological mechanisms that could one day reveal treatments for people who are paralysed due to spinal cord damage.

This picture of neurons from a female brain highlights those that have switched off the X chromosome inherited from the mother (in green), and those that have silenced the X chromosome inherited from the father (in red). In cases where an altered gene on one of the X chromosomes causes autism or intellectual disability, only around a half of the cells will be affected. This helps to explain why these conditions are less common in women than in men.

Sensory superhighway - Just like the electrical wires in the national grid, the electrical connections between brain cells, as shown in this picture, have to be well insulated. If this insulation is lost, neurons lose their ability to communicate efficiently. This is what happens in several neurological diseases including Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Picture: University of Edinburgh