needs to be tried on a blue blood:
Posted on 06/05/2005 4:29:47 PM PDT by LibWhacker
An effort to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level, was launched on Monday.
The “Blue Brain” project, a collaboration between IBM and a Swiss university team, will involve building a custom-made supercomputer based on IBM’s Blue Gene design.
The hope is that the virtual brain will help shed light on some aspects of human cognition, such as perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness.
It will be the first time humans will be able to observe the electrical code our brains use to represent the world, and to do so in real time, say Henry Markram, director of Brain and Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytecnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
It may also help in understanding how certain malfunctions of the brain’s “microcircuits” could cause psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression, he says.
Until now this sort of undertaking would not be possible because the processing power and the scientific knowledge of how the brain is wired simply was not there, says Charles Peck, IBM’s lead researcher on the project.
“But there has been a convergence of the biological data and the computational resources,” he says. But efforts to map the brain’s circuits and the development of the Blue Gene supercomputer, which has a peak processing power of at least 22.8 teraflops, now make this possible.
Mapping the brain
For over a decade Markram and his colleagues have been building a database of the neural architecture of the neocortex, the largest and most complex part of mammalian brains.
Using pioneering techniques, they have studied precisely how individual neurons behave electrically and built up a set of rules for how different types of neurons connect to one another.
Very thin slices of mouse brain were kept alive under a microscope and probed electrically before being stained to reveal the synaptic, or nerve, connections. “We have the largest database in the world of single neurons that have been recorded and stained,” says Markram.
Neocortical columns
Using this database the initial phase of Blue Brain will model the electrical structure of neocortical columns - neural circuits that are repeated throughout the brain.
“These are the network units of the brain,” says Markram. Measuring just 0.5 millimetres by 2 mm, these units contain between 10 and 70,000 neurons, depending upon the species.
Once this is complete, the behaviour of columns can be mapped and modelled before moving into the second phase of the project.
Two new models will be built, one a molecular model of the neurons involved. The other will clone the behavioural model of columns thousands of times to produce a complete neocortex, and eventually the rest of the brain.
The end product, which will take at least a decade to achieve, can then be stimulated and observed to see how different parts of the brain behave. For example, visual information can be inputted to the visual cortex, while Blue Brain’s response is observed.
They will observe the code used to model the functions of the brain.
Paging Howeird Dean.... Paging Howeird Dean.... Please pick up a white courtesy phone... Your package is ready.
I have a block of wood that perfectly emulates my ex boss's brain.
Is that overclocked? What's it overclock to?
Can we Mass produce these for the Liberals?
'Skynet' reference in 5...4...3..2...
Can we get The Hildabeaste to be the first volunteer? Oh, wait! That won't work. As the world's smartest woman she'd probably blow out all the wiring.
I'm sure that this new computer model will be exactly as valid as the global warming models we've been subjected to.
...which would make John Kerry the ideal experimental subject for the first-ever brain implant...Howeird Dean "the Scream" would assist at the delicate surgical procedure...
"On the contary..."
Lots of luck. The human brain operates with no CPU, no software, and generates essentially no heat. It has 100 billion "parts" :)- Can we build a computer based on chemical interactions? Sure, in the year 5005 maybe.
Snow White and the seven Microprocessor....I/O I/O it's off to work I go
Why do I bother? They will do both and humanity will be nerfed. :(
But will the scientists be allowed to present their findings and claim credit for their work? After all, this is quite clearly a case of intelligent deisgn, and we all know that ID is unscientific, misguided, and foolish. Right?
It also seems to have a much lower "clocl rate" than a laptop. We do not even know if the electrical impluse of a synapse firing is the actual informational signal or merely a sideeffect of the chemical interaction at the synapse borders. Our knowledge of computational neuroscience is about at the level of physics in the 17th centruy.
Nonsense, those are not even remotely connected to what this article is talking about.
Simulated Brain?
Paging Al Gore....
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