Traditionally, neuroscience regards the brain as being made up of two basic tissue types. Billions of neurons make up the grey matter, forming a thin layer on the brain’s surface. These neuronal cells are interlinked in a mindboggling network by hundreds of millions of white matter connections, running in bundles, deeper in the brain. Until very recently, not much was known about the interface between the white and grey matter – the so-called superficial white matter. Yet, previous investigations had suggested the region to be implicated in devastating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. Now a multidisciplinary team led by Nikolaus Weiskopf has succeeded in making the superficial white matter visible in the living human brain.