IIT-M releases world’s most detailed 3D atlas of human brainstem

CHENNAI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have released what they describe as the world’s most detailed 3D atlas of the human brainstem, providing cell-level maps of a critical region of the brain involved in functions such as breathing, sleep, movement and consciousness.

The atlas was released during the third BRICS Neuroscience Symposium held at the campus.

Speaking at the event, Principal Scientific Adviser, GoI, Ajay Kumar Sood said that the atlas integrated MRI data, histology and detailed cellular architecture, creating one of the most comprehensive publicly available digital maps of the human brainstem.

“This can help researchers identify specific cell populations affected by brainstem lesions and support future clinical applications,” he added.

Named ANCHOR (Atlas of Neurochemical Characterization of the Human Brainstem with 3D Reconstruction), the resource has been developed by the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre (SGBC) at IIT-M and has been made publicly accessible to researchers and clinicians worldwide. It marks the latest milestone for the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, which had earlier unveiled DHARANI, a digital atlas of the human brain, in 2025.

The atlas contains multi-modal 3D maps of the human brainstem spanning prenatal, childhood and adult stages. It maps more than 200 brainstem nuclei and fibre tracts reconstructed from hundreds of serial tissue sections. Researchers said that they overlaid 8 different immunostains across more than 500 sections to identify and map distinct neurochemical cell types.

IIT-M director V Kamakoti said, “The centre is also studying brains affected by conditions such as rabies, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to understand how diseases alter brain structure.”

According to SGBC head Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, the atlas uses a visualisation framework that “links large-scale MRI images with cellular-level data, allowing users to navigate seamlessly between anatomical structures and microscopic features”.

The centre said that it had plans to image more than 100 human brains across different stages of life and neurological diseases as part of its long-term effort to build comprehensive cell-resolution maps of the human brain.`