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Deep readings that go behind the 3D model: what each part of the brain is, what it does and how, what happens when it fails, the equations scientists use to describe it, and where the research is heading, from brain-computer interfaces to artificial neural networks.
Every statement is linked to its source. Readings are written for students and clinicians, are awaiting clinical review, and are not medical advice.
Foundations
Neurons, synapses and how the brain is put together.
- Blood supply and stroke
The arteries of the brain and their territories, how flow is regulated, what a stroke destroys minute by minute, and the trials that changed treatment.
Intermediate · about 13 min
- How the brain is organised
A map of the whole brain: its divisions, cells and energy budget, how it develops from a tube, how its network is wired, and how it changes over a lifetime.
Introductory · about 8 min
- Neurons and electrical signals
How a nerve cell makes a 100-millivolt spike, the equations that describe it, and why one neuron may be a deep network in disguise.
Introductory · about 14 min
- Synapses and plasticity
How neurons signal across synapses, how connections strengthen and weaken to store memories, what attacks them, and the connectomes and chips that copy them.
Intermediate · about 9 min
Regions and systems
The cortex, lobe by lobe and system by system.
- The cerebral cortex and its maps
What the folded outer layer of the brain is made of, why it folds, and how scientists map it from Brodmann's microscope to petabyte connectomes.
Introductory · about 11 min
- The frontal lobe and executive control
How the front of the brain holds goals in mind, controls thought and action, weighs the future, and what Phineas Gage, lobotomy and AI reveal about it.
Intermediate · about 10 min
- Hearing and the temporal lobe
How the cochlea analyses sound, how auditory cortex maps frequency, speech and music, what goes wrong, and the implants and gene therapies that restore hearing.
Intermediate · about 10 min
- Language and speech
Where language lives in the brain, why it is not the same as thought, and how AI language models and speech implants are changing the field.
Intermediate · about 10 min
- The limbic system, cingulate and insula
How the brain's inner rim and the hidden insula sense the body, shape feelings, register pain and conflict, and how stimulators and decoders now target mood.
Intermediate · about 10 min
- The motor system
How the brain turns intention into movement, from the redrawn motor homunculus to the laws of reaching and the technology that restores it.
Intermediate · about 11 min
- Touch and the parietal lobe
How fingertips, the somatosensory map and the parietal cortex turn touch and space into action, and how touch is being restored artificially.
Intermediate · about 9 min
- Vision and the occipital lobe
How spikes from the retina become edges, faces and scenes, the equations of receptive fields, and the implants and AI models built on them.
Intermediate · about 10 min
Deep structures
Thalamus, basal ganglia, hippocampus, cerebellum, brainstem and ventricles.
- The basal ganglia and reward
How deep brain circuits choose actions, build habits and learn from reward, and why the dopamine signal inspired a branch of AI.
Intermediate · about 8 min
- The brainstem and cranial nerves
How the brainstem keeps us breathing and awake, what the twelve cranial nerves do, how they are tested, and what happens when they fail.
Intermediate · about 9 min
- The cerebellum and motor learning
How the 'little brain', with more neurons than the cerebral cortex, predicts and corrects movement, and how it shapes thinking and AI models of learning.
Intermediate · about 9 min
- The hippocampus and memory
How the brain records new memories and maps space, what patient H.M. revealed, and how AI navigators and memory implants learn from it.
Intermediate · about 9 min
- The thalamus and consciousness
How the thalamus relays and gates signals to the cortex, how consciousness is lost and measured, and what science says about conscious machines.
Advanced · about 9 min
- Ventricles, CSF and pressure
How cerebrospinal fluid is made, moves and is cleared, the physics of pressure inside the skull, and what happens when the balance fails.
Intermediate · about 9 min
Connections and blood supply
White matter wiring and the arteries that feed it.
- White matter and tractography
The brain's wiring, how diffusion MRI reveals it, the maths of tensors and networks, and the limits of mapping tracts.
Intermediate · about 8 min
Imaging and methods
How the images and maps in this atlas are made.
- How MRI sees the brain
Nuclear magnetic resonance, relaxation and k-space; structural, diffusion and functional MRI; their pitfalls; and AI, portable and 11.7 T scanners.
Intermediate · about 11 min
Brains, AI and technology
Neural networks, brain-computer interfaces and brain mapping.
- Brain–computer interfaces
How implants like BrainGate and Neuralink read intention from motor cortex, the maths of decoding, and the race to restore speech and movement.
Intermediate · about 12 min
- Mapping the brain: the breakthroughs
From Golgi and Brodmann to whole-brain connectomes, cell atlases and AI foundation models: how the brain is mapped and where mapping is heading.
Introductory · about 9 min
- Neural networks, biological and artificial
How brains and machines learn from experience, the maths both share, and why AI and neuroscience keep borrowing from each other.
Intermediate · about 15 min