EAGER: Microetching of the Human Brain

这个名为“人脑微蚀刻”的项目努力创造出有史以来最全面的人脑图。研究人员将利用反射微蚀刻技术，这是一种结合数学和光学的工艺，可以根据观察者的位置创造出一种艺术作品。微蚀刻技术可以以难以置信的精细细节描绘非常复杂的大脑活动。最后一件作品将是一幅墙壁大小的精美艺术品，每天都有成千上万的不同人群在费城富兰克林学院体验。此外，这个项目是本科生通过直接参与作品创作的教育机会。由于这个项目涉及许多科学和艺术学科，学生将有机会学习自己以外的领域，拓宽他们的技能，并学习如何有效地传达科学概念。这个项目是神经科学家、工程师、物理学家和艺术家之间的合作，旨在解决艺术是否可以用于向新受众传播科学理解的问题，以一种对潜在概念的本能感觉。人类的大脑非常复杂，很难清晰地描绘出来。通过艺术来传达大脑的复杂性可能会激发人们对大脑科学内容的兴趣，并激励新一代神经科学家。为了制作一件能够充分描绘大脑的精细艺术品，这件艺术品将采用一种称为反射微蚀刻的技术。微蚀刻是一种高分辨率的光刻工艺，在表面上形成周期性脊状的微地形。当站在相对于画作的特定角度时，这些脊被设计成向观众反射点光源照明。类似于暗场显微镜，这可以产生令人难以置信的精细细节。此外，光线的角度依赖性增加了一个额外的维度，可以用来传达时间，深度或运动，当观众走过。该作品将以神经元、神经胶质、脉管系统、白质和灰质为特色，以及与视觉自我识别相关的神经过程相对应的大脑区域之间的反射动画电路动力学。这将为作品注入额外的意义，因为观众大脑中激活的电路将与艺术品中描绘的相同。

The project "Microetching of the Human Brain" endeavors to create the most comprehensive illustration of the human brain that has ever existed. Investigators will utilize reflective microetching, a process combining mathematics and optics to create an art piece that evolves based on the position of the viewer. Microetching allows the depiction of very complex brain activity at incredibly fine detail. The final piece will be a wall-sized piece of fine art experienced by a diverse population of thousands daily at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Additionally, this project is an educational opportunity for undergraduate students through direct involvement in the creation of the piece. As this project spans many scientific and artistic disciplines, students will be given an opportunity to learn about fields apart from their own, to broaden their skill set, and to learn how to communicate scientific concepts effectively.This project is a collaboration between neuroscientists, engineers, physicists, and artists to address the question of whether art can be used in the dissemination of scientific understanding to new audiences in a way that gives a visceral sense of the underlying concepts. The human brain is massively complex and challenging to portray clearly. Conveying a sense of its complexity through art may inspire an interest in the brain's scientific content and inspire a new generation of neuroscientists. To produce a piece of fine art capable of sufficient detail to depict the brain at near full complexity, the piece will be executed by a technique called reflective microetching. Microetching is a high-resolution lithographic process that patterns a microtopography of periodic ridges into the surface. These ridges are engineered to reflect a point-source illumination toward a viewer when standing at a specific angle relative to the painting. Similar to darkfield microscopy, this can yield incredibly fine detail. Additionally, the angular dependence of the light adds an extra dimension that can be used to convey time, depth, or motion as the viewer walks past. The piece will feature neurons, glia, vasculature, white and gray matter, and reflectively animated circuit dynamics between areas of the brain corresponding to neural processes involved in visual self-recognition. This will infuse the piece with additional meaning, as the circuits activated within viewers' brains will be the same that are depicted in the artwork.