Concept of creating a functioning computer model of a brain or part of a brain
In the field of
neurons
, or other cells within the brain.
Various simulations from around the world have been fully or partially released as open source software, such as C. elegans,[4] and the Blue Brain Project Showcase.[5] In 2013 the Human Brain Project, which has utilized techniques used by the Blue Brain Project and built upon them,[6] created a Brain Simulation Platform (BSP), an internet-accessible collaborative platform designed for the simulation of brain models.
Brain simulations can be done at varying levels of detail, with more detail requiring significantly higher computation capabilities. Some simulations may only consider the behaviour of areas without modeling individual neurons. Other simulations model the behaviour of individual neurons, the strength of the connections between neurons and how these connections change.
Over time, brain simulation research has focused on increasingly complex organisms, starting with primitive organisms like the nematode
C. elegans
and progressing towards simulations of human brains.
Roundworm
Brain map of the C. elegans roundworm 302 neurons, interconnected by 5000 synapses
The connectivity of the neural circuit for touch sensitivity of the simple
artificial neural networks
, the neurons of which are exceedingly simple compared to their often complex, abstract outputs.
Drosophila
Further information:
Insect brain
The brain of the fruit fly, Drosophila, has also been thoroughly studied. A simulated model of the fruit fly's brain offers a unique model of sibling neurons.[16] Like the roundworm, this has been made available as open-source software.[17]
Blue Brain project completed a simulation of a rat's neocortical column. The neocortical column is considered the smallest functional unit of the neocortex. The neocortex is the part of the brain thought to be responsible for higher-order functions like conscious thought, and contains 10,000 neurons in the rat brain (and 108synapses). In November 2007,[19]
the project reported the end of its first phase, delivering a data-driven process for creating, validating, and researching the neocortical column.
An
IBM Almaden in 2007.[21] Each second of simulated time took ten seconds of computer time. The researchers claimed to observe "biologically consistent" nerve impulses that flowed through the virtual cortex. However, the simulation lacked the structures seen in real mice brains, and they intend to improve the accuracy of the neuron and synapse models.[22] IBM later in the same year increased the number of neurons to 16 million and 8000 synapses per neuron, 5 seconds of which was modelled in 265 s of real time.[23] By 2009, the researchers were able to ramp up the numbers to 1.6 billion neurons and 9 trillion synapses, saturating entire 144 TB of supercomputer RAM.[24]
In 2019, Idan Segev, one of the computational neuroscientists working on the Blue Brain Project, gave a talk titled: "Brain in the computer: what did I learn from simulating the brain." In his talk, he mentioned that the whole cortex for the mouse brain was complete and virtual EEG experiments would begin soon. He also mentioned that the model had become too heavy on the supercomputers they were using at the time, and that they were consequently exploring methods in which every neuron could be represented as a neural network (see citation for details).[25]
In 2023, researchers from Duke University performed a particularly high-resolution scan of a mouse brain.[26]
Blue Brain
autism
, and to understand how pharmacological agents affect network behavior.
A supercomputer having similar computing capability as the human brain is scheduled to go online in April 2024.[30] Called "DeepSouth", it could perform 228 trillions of synaptic operations per second.[31]
K computer
In late 2013, researchers in Japan and Germany used the K computer, then 4th fastest supercomputer, and the simulation software NEST to simulate 1% of the human brain. The simulation modeled a network consisting of 1.73 billion nerve cells connected by 10.4 trillion synapses. To realize this feat, the program recruited 82,944 processors of the K Computer. The process took 40 minutes, to complete the simulation of 1 second of neuronal network activity in real, biological, time.[32][33]
Human Brain Project
The Human Brain Project (HBP) was a 10-year program of research funded by the European Union. It began in 2013 and employed around 500 scientists across Europe.[34] It includes 6 platforms:
The Brain Simulation Platform (BSP) is a device for internet-accessible tools, which allows investigations that are not possible in the laboratory. They are applying Blue Brain techniques to other brain regions, such as the cerebellum, hippocampus, and the basal ganglia.[35]
Open source brain simulation
Various models of the brain have been released as
C. elegans roundworm,[4] the Drosophila fruit fly,[17] and the human brain models Elysia[36] and Spaun,[37] which are based on the NENGO software architecture.[38] The Blue Brain Project Showcase likewise illustrates how models and data from the Blue Brain Project can be converted to NeuroML and PyNN (Python neuronal network models).[5]
^Mark WakabayashiArchived May 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, with links to MuCoW simulation software, a demo video and the doctoral thesis Computational Plausibility of Stretch Receptors as the Basis for Motor Control in C. elegans, 2006.
