Anchor tries to close that gap.

Users can zoom from the entire brainstem seen on the MRI to individual neurons while maintaining their precise spatial relationships. The researchers have made the atlas freely available online., externalhoping it will become a reference tool for neuroscientists, neurologists and neurosurgeons around the world.

Its applications could also extend far beyond anatomy.

By comparing healthy brainstem maps with diseased tissue, scientists can better understand disorders ranging from Parkinson’s disease and stroke to Alzheimer’s disease and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). More accurate maps could also help neurosurgeons more confidently navigate one of the brain’s most delicate regions.

Anchor is not a diagnostic tool. Rather, its greatest value lies in the questions it could help answer.

Partha Mitra, a brain scientist at the prestigious New York-based Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who has worked with SGBC, says detailed brain atlases like this could have a “transformative impact” on the study of neurological diseases by revealing, cell by cell, how brains affected by conditions like Alzheimer’s or autism differ from healthy ones.

They could also help explain how infections, including Covid-19, trigger long-term neurological damage, Mitra told the BBC.

Using stroke as an example, Folkerth says the atlas has discovered new features that could help doctors preserve brain tissue that is injured but not yet irreparable, which could improve patient outcomes. Other scientists say the atlas could also help neurosurgeons navigate the brain stem more safely.

Part of the appeal of this atlas lies in its simplicity. Built from high-resolution images of thin slices of post-mortem brain tissue, the approach makes detailed mapping at the cellular level affordable.

This, says Mitra, has made it possible to map the human brainstem on an unprecedented scale.

The achievement reflects a broader transformation in neuroscience, where progress increasingly depends on engineering and computing as much as biology.

Around 20 scientists spent 18 months at the SGBC manually analyzing more than 200 sections of the brain, combining MRIs, microscopic anatomy and 3D reconstruction into a single digital atlas. The center now brings together more than 200 researchers, engineers and technicians working with collaborators from around the world.

The result helps address a surprising gap in neuroscience.