EAGER: Microetching of the Human Brain

“人脑微蚀刻画”项目致力于创造有史以来最全面的人脑图解。研究人员将利用反射式微蚀刻，这是一种结合数学和光学的过程，以创造一件根据观察者的位置演变的艺术品。微蚀刻术能够以令人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面墙大小的美术作品，每天有数千人在费城的富兰克林研究所体验。此外，这个项目通过直接参与作品的创作为本科生提供了一个教育机会。由于这个项目跨越了许多科学和艺术学科，学生们将有机会学习他们自己的领域之外的其他领域，拓宽他们的技能集，并学习如何有效地交流科学概念。这个项目是神经学家、工程师、物理学家和艺术家之间的合作，以解决艺术是否可以用来向新的受众传播科学理解的问题，这种方式可以让人们对潜在的概念有一个发自内心的感觉。人类的大脑极其复杂，要清晰地描绘出来具有挑战性。通过艺术传达大脑的复杂性，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。为了制作出一件能够以几乎完全复杂的方式描绘大脑的足够细节的美术作品，这件作品将通过一种名为反射微蚀刻的技术来完成。微蚀刻是一种高分辨率的光刻工艺，它将周期性的脊微地形图案化到表面。这些山脊被设计成当站在相对于绘画的特定角度时向观察者反射点源照明。类似于暗视野显微镜，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，可以用来在观看者走过时传达时间、深度或运动。这件作品将以神经元、神经胶质、血管系统、白质和灰质为特色，并在与视觉自我识别相关的神经过程对应的大脑区域之间反射动画电路动力学。这将为这件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.