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Neuron Structure

Neuron Structure

Neurons are the main type of cell in the nervous system that generate and transmit electrochemical signals. They primarily communicate with each other using neurotransmitters at specific junctions called synapses. Neurons come in many shapes that often relate to their function, but most share three main structures: an axon and dendrites that extend out from a cell body.
Structure and Function of Neurons
The neuronal cell body—the soma— houses the nucleus and organelles vital to...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Published on: December 18, 2016

Brain morphology is individual-specific information.

Hidemasa Takao¹, Naoto Hayashi², Kuni Ohtomo¹

¹Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

|April 12, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Brain morphology is unique to each individual and can be used for personal identification. Structural magnetic resonance imaging data reveals distinct brain patterns, confirming brain morphology as personally identifiable information.

Keywords:

Biometrics Brain morphology Eigenbrain Magnetic resonance imaging Recognition Voxel-based morphometry

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Last Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

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A Standardized Pipeline for Examining Human Cerebellar Grey Matter Morphometry using Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging

A Standardized Pipeline for Examining Human Cerebellar Grey Matter Morphometry using Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: February 4, 2022

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Biometrics
Medical Imaging Analysis

Background:

Understanding individual differences in brain structure is crucial for explaining variations in cognitive functions and behavior.
The potential for brain morphology to serve as unique, personally identifiable information has not been fully explored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if brain morphology is discernibly different among individuals.
To determine if brain morphology constitutes personally identifiable information.

Main Methods:

Utilized structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data from 215 healthy subjects scanned twice.
Employed voxel-based morphometry for image normalization and principal component analysis for feature extraction.
Calculated Euclidean distances between projected image pairs to assess individual recognition rates.

Main Results:

Achieved a rank-one identification rate of 99.5% with 32 dimensions and 100% with ≥112 dimensions.
Demonstrated high genuine acceptance rates (95.8% to 100%) at a low false acceptance rate (0.01%).
Showed minimal impact of scanner variations or upgrades on identification accuracy.

Conclusions:

Brain morphology is sufficiently unique to identify specific individuals, thus qualifying as personally identifiable information.
Individual variations in brain morphology may underlie differences in psychological characteristics, behavior patterns, personality, and brain function.