Results from the Rutgers Health study provide a deeper understanding of mental states and cognition

Rutgers researchers at the Brain Health Institute (BHI) and the Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR) have discovered how different types of brain cells work together to form large-scale functional networks in the human brain—interconnected systems that support everything from sensory processing to complex decision-making – paving the way for new insights into brain health and disease.

By pinpointing these cellular foundations, studypublished in Nature’s Neuroscienceprovides a deeper understanding of the cellular foundations of cognition and mental health.

These findings demonstrate a connection between the functional organization of the human brain and its cellular underpinnings.

Abraham Holmes

Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Core Faculty Member, Rutgers Brain Health Institute and Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research

The brain’s functional properties derive from the different cell types in its cortex, the outermost layer responsible for many complex mental tasks. A major goal in neuroscience research is to understand how our genetic, molecular, and cellular processes support the brain’s organizational properties, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Historically, researchers have studied the organizational properties of the brain by examining tissue samples from autopsy or by using invasive techniques on animals, such as studying tissue structure (histology), tracing neural pathways, measuring electrical activity (electrophysiology), or observing changes after specific areas are damaged (lesion methods).

Advances in genetics and technology now allow scientists to study how brain cells are organized in human tissue more precisely. In this study, Rutgers researchers used recently developed post-mortem gene expression atlases, which map how genes are differentially expressed across brain regions, to explore how different types of cells can spatially align to brain network studies in the general population.

Researchers found that certain cell type distributions align with specific networks in the cerebral cortex, both at the level of individual cell types and multivariate cellular profiles, or fingerprints.

“These findings demonstrate a connection between the functional organization of the human brain and its cellular underpinnings,” said senior author Abraham Holmesassociate professor of psychiatry at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and core faculty member of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute and that Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research.

“The study has significant implications for understanding the cellular basis of brain functions across health and disease,” Holmes said.

This research lays the groundwork for future studies to explore how our different cell types interact within the brain’s network and to test other potential models of how cells contribute to brain function.

Future studies should explore ways to integrate the hierarchical structure of these different cell definitions into analyzes and consider alternative models of in vivo brain function, says Holmes.