US researchers published incredibly detailed images of the human brain as part of an international project aimed at uncovering how brain architecture influences personality.

The five-year "Human Connectome Project" or HCP -- being conducted at 10 research centers in the US and Europe -- will use advanced brain imaging technology to collect vast amounts of data on healthy adults and make it freely available to researchers worldwide, AFP reported.

"The HCP will have a major impact on our understanding of the healthy adult human brain," said David Van Essen, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

It will enable "the scientific community to immediately begin exploring relationships between brain circuits and individual behavior," he said.

"And it will set the stage for future projects that examine changes in brain circuits underlying the wide variety of brain disorders afflicting humankind."

Tuesday's initial release includes scans of 68 healthy adults, along with behavioral information, including individual differences in personality, cognitive capabilities, emotional characteristics and perceptual function.