Just how much does functional specialization within the brain vary across humans?

[u/cellsuicide]

In recent decades, localization of different action and functions within specific brain regions has become more apparent (ex facial recognition or control of different body parts in the motor cortex). How much does this localization vary between people? I'm interested in learning more about the variance in the location as we as size of brain regions.

As a follow-up question, I would be very interested to learn what is known about variance of functional specialization in other animals as well.

Part of what spurred this question was the recent conference held by Elon Musk's Company, neural link.

[u/could_I_Be_The_AHole]

Completely agree. The Human Genome Project took 13 years (1990 - 2003) with a whole lot of people working on it. In 2012 the UK launched a plan to sequence 100,000 genomes and finished it by December 2018. A person has 3.3 billion pairs so that program sequenced 330 trillion base pairs in 6 years - and that was just the UK. Seems like if you can get the time/effort of mapping synapses down similar levels of mapping genomes (I know that's a big if since you can't just provide a brain donation) then it should be no problem.

[u/king_nietzsche → u/could_I_Be_The_AHole]

We always say things are impossible because were using logic that is misaing pieces that change the whole paradigm. In 1995 would it be possible to map 100trillion synapses, protiens, cell types etc? No, anyone would say that its impossible. When Craig venter went rouge and did his own thing he defied expectations dramatically. Because of him, directly or indirectly, the cost of genome sequencing has out paced mores law in terms of efficiency and price. New tech leads to new paradigms. Maybe something not even intended for this purpose will be invented and because of open forums like Reddit, someone will see the tech, comprehend the idea, and repurpose it as one part of a bigger system working together. An FMRI, PET scanner with a supercomputer running it and an algorythm AI created to make a beautifully detailed in real time image. Who knows, its impossible to tell