{"id":219992,"date":"2025-08-13T00:10:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T05:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/neural-navigation-engineers-map-brains-smallest-blood-vessels-using-computer-models"},"modified":"2025-08-13T00:10:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T05:10:25","slug":"neural-navigation-engineers-map-brains-smallest-blood-vessels-using-computer-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/neural-navigation-engineers-map-brains-smallest-blood-vessels-using-computer-models","title":{"rendered":"Neural navigation: Engineers map brain\u2019s smallest blood vessels using computer models"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/neural-navigation-engineers-map-brains-smallest-blood-vessels-using-computer-models2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Healthy brain function relies on a steady supply of blood. Disruptions in blood flow are linked to major neurological conditions like stroke, Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD), and traumatic brain injuries. But understanding how the brain fine-tunes this flow\u2014especially across its smallest blood vessels\u2014remains a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The brain\u2019s blood supply includes a vast network of vessels, ranging from large arteries to microscopic capillaries. Between these lie transitional zone (TZ) vessels\u2014such as penetrating arterioles, precapillary arterioles, and capillary sphincters\u2014that bridge the gap and may play a big role in regulating flow. But their exact contribution, particularly during increased brain activity, remains a subject of scientific debate.<\/p>\n<p>To explore these dynamics, researchers from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University and the FAU Sensing Institute (I-SENSE) developed a highly detailed computer model of the mouse brain\u2019s vasculature, treating each vessel segment as a tiny, adjustable valve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Healthy brain function relies on a steady supply of blood. Disruptions in blood flow are linked to major neurological conditions like stroke, Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD), and traumatic brain injuries. But understanding how the brain fine-tunes this flow\u2014especially across its smallest blood vessels\u2014remains a challenge. The brain\u2019s blood supply includes a vast network of vessels, ranging [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}