DOCTOR MAY BE MENTAL MAGELLAN : NEUROLOGIST MAPPING OUT BRAIN DATABASE.

Byline: Jane E. Allen Associated Press 

Dr. John Mazziotta leads an ambitious research project using the latest imaging technology to produce a map of the brain that will eventually illuminate mysteries of thought, movement and even the progression of disease.

``We're trying to build a representative atlas of the human brain, similar to geography of the Earth,'' said Mazziotta, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

But, he noted, there are some obstacles.

First, ``all brains are different.'' And, ``unlike the Earth, there is no agreed-upon navigation system; no altitude, longitude, latitude.''

Mazziotta is principal investigator of a brain-mapping project funded with a five-year, $4.5 million grant from a consortium of federal agencies. The grant runs through 1998.

The 3-pound human brain, with 10 billion working parts, ``is basically a chemical electrical factory,'' Mazziotta said.

Once the researchers have nailed down its anatomy, they'll move on to map the processes associated with movement, speech, sensation, thought and memory. Then, they'll pinpoint the subtle changes in chemistry and function associated with diseases.

They'll be linking activity to physiology.

Just like cartographers can layer crime rate, smog, and rainfall onto a topographic map, scientists can layer variables like blood flow, abnormalities from disease or injury, and the distribution of cell receptors for important chemicals onto their image of the brain.

The goal is a database for brains spanning all ages, populations and diseases, said Mazziotta, co-director of the UCLA Brain Mapping Division.

Comprising researchers at UCLA as well as the University of Texas-San Antonio, Montreal Neurologic Institute and in Sydney, Australia, the brain mapping group seeks ``to make something we can easily distribute'' through the Internet, Mazziotta said.

They base it on two kinds of data.

One involves microthin slices of brain tissue. So far, brains from hundreds of people who donated their bodies to science have been carefully sectioned and photographed by digital cameras. These images reveal chemistry as well as cellular and microscopic organization of the brain.

Amazingly, the researchers can use mathematical manipulations to restore the natural shape of slices squashed by cutting. They use a warping technique analogous to the ``morphing'' process used by moviemakers to seamlessly merge different faces or figures.

The other type of data comes from detailed MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging - scans of living brains, showing sites of brain activity. MRI scanners use magnetic fields and radio pulses to make images.

Eventually, the researchers will incorporate PET scans showing brain activity when research subjects are asked to carry out specific tasks. PET scanners use radio waves to measure how chemicals move through brain tissue.