Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, first captured the elegant beauty of branching neurons in his simple ink drawings 100 years ago. These entries for the 2012 Art of Neuroscience competition in the Netherlands use modern imaging techniques to show how far our view into the brain has come.
The competition's winning entry was a video that used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize brain function and anatomy. Also keep an ear on the soundtrack, which was composed by assigning each brain activity pattern to an instrument. The instrument's pitch varies with intensity of brain activity--raw thought translated into music.
See all of the entries, including videos, at the Art of Neuroscience competition's website. Also see DISCOVER's earlier gallery of Ramon y Cajal's work.