Your brain is more superficial than we thought.
Researchers at the University of Monash in Melbourne, Australia, have discovered that the shape of the brain can strongly influence how you’re thinking that, feel and behave.
Previously, scientists believed that the connectivity of neurons in the brain is what drives its function. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that it may very well be the grooves, contours and folds of the brain that can actually affect this – not complex connections.
The study was published in Nature on Wednesday. Researchers examined MRI scans of the brains of 255 people, which occurred when participants performed tasks resembling tapping their fingers or recalling sequences of images.
The team then checked out 10,000 different maps of human brain activity taken from greater than 1,000 experiments around the world, comparing the effects of different roles on brain shape.
The study used a physical term, eigenmode, which describes the system’s natural vibration patterns by applying them to brain activity.
“The best way to understand what eigenmodes are is to take into consideration the violin,” explained co-author James Pang in university press release.
“Each time you pluck its string, it vibrates with some pattern, and that pattern corresponds to the notes you hear,” he said. “The preferred vibration patterns are the eigenmodes of the string.”
![The study used a physical term, eigenmode, which when applied to the brain is the natural pattern of vibration in the system.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012054546.jpg?w=1024)
![Professor Alex Fornito and Dr. James Pang.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012053820.jpg?w=1024)
Pang compared the geometry of the brain and the role it plays in brain function to the effect of the shape and size of a rock on the undulations in a pond attributable to a thrown stone.
“Geometry could be very necessary since it governs the appearance of the wave, which in turn relates to the patterns of activity you see when people perform different tasks,” Pang explained. NBC.
![Dr Pang said the findings are significant because they have greatly simplified the way we can study how the brain functions, develops and ages.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012053819.jpg?w=1024)
![Dr. Pang also noted that the theory could help scientists understand the effects of brain activity associated with diseases such as dementia, schizophrenia and depression by taking into account models of brain shape.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012053821.jpg?w=1024)
Pang also noted that the theory could help scientists understand the effects of brain activity related to diseases resembling dementia, schizophrenia or depression – by considering models of brain shape.
“[They] they’re much easier to work with than models of the full range of connections in the brain,’ he added.