For an exhibition called PORTAL, the October Gallery in London selected my illustration of NGV [Neuro-Glia-Vasculature, an important triad in the brain] and a short video of neural simulation that I designed together with the Visualization team at Blue Brain Project.
Copyright © 2018 Blue Brain Project. All rights reserved.
This illustration is the result of a long-term research in visualization for which I developed various automated ways [Python + Blender for the technical artists out there] to create 3D surface meshes out of the available skeleton data for astrocytes, neurons and capillaries.
This is the result of a collaboration with scientist Eleftherios Zisis. Illustrating digital scientific models is also an opportunity to help improve and fix issues that could hardly be spotted other than visually.
NGV stands for Neuro-Glia-Vasculature. In the brain, neurons are supported and regulated by other types of cells known as the glia. Among the glia, astrocytes are territorial cells (here in blue) that, among other complex interactions with their surroundings, take nutrients from the vasculature (here the red capillaries) and distribute them to neurons (yellow). They also support synaptic activity within their domain.
What you see in this illustration of the neocortex is roughly 1.5mm tall and 0.5mm wide.
Details about the exhibition on artrabbit and on octobergallery.
The second piece is a video of a neocortical simulation (87 Terrabytes of data!), here only with neurons where membrane potential variations are shown with colors. The simulation lasts 12 seconds with a thalamo-cortical stimulus at the begining.
