Blue brain
The Blue Brain project is a pioneering project to understand how the brain works by creating large-scale computer models . It was launched by Henry Markram's Brain and Mind Institute of the École Polytechnique in Lausanne (Switzerland) and IBM (USA) in May 2005. The aim was to create a biologically correct, virtual brain model by 2015. Since EU funding of 1 billion euros, this project has been called the Human Brain Project .
An important intermediate goal of the project was completed at the end of 2007: Blue Column achieved the goal of fully simulating a neocortical column at the cellular level. Neocortical columns are 2 mm high and 0.5 mm in diameter. In humans, they contain around 60,000 neurons . Blue column refers to rats whose cortical columns contain about 10,000 nerve cells and about 10 8 synapses .
The simulation goes beyond the concept of the artificial neural network : It is based on biologically plausible and complex models of different nerve cell types . The Neocortical Simulator (NCS) developed by Phil Goodman is used in combination with Michael Hines' NEURON software . The simulation is to be calculated on a BlueGene supercomputer . Blue Column is to be implemented within 2-3 years and then tested with a series of empirical data.
In the further course, the development is to be continued in two directions:
- Simulation of a cortical column at the molecular level to e.g. B. to examine the importance of gene expression
- Simplification of the simulation with the aim of being able to network a large number of pillars and simulate them in parallel. The ultimate goal is to simulate a complete neocortex , which in humans consists of approximately 1 million cortical columns.
In a 10-year perspective, various researchers around the world should be able to create their own models of different brain regions and upload them to an Internet database. The Blue Brain software is supposed to network these modules with one another and use them to build the first simulation of a complete brain. To do this, several unresolved issues must be addressed.
In October 2015, the first major result presented was the simulation of the activity of around 31,000 neurons from the somatosensory cortex of a rat brain.
The Human Brain Project , which was also launched by Markram, is to be understood as a follow-up project at EU level .
On January 11, 2018, EPFL published the "Blue Brain Nexus" data platform of the Blue Brain Project.
criticism
Some critics see Markram's project as an expensive wrong track and believe that the money should be better used for research on real brains.
literature
- Manfred Dworschak: Brain from the factory . In: Der Spiegel of February 12, 2007 No. 7, pp. 148ff
- Joachim Laukenmann: Lausanne researchers want to simulate a central building block of the brain for the first time. In: Sunday newspaper of February 11, 2007
- Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7: 153-160 (February 2006): The Blue Brain Project - Henry Markram
- Bettina Bläsing: Brain made of Bits and Bytes In: Die Welt from January 7, 2006
swell
- Blue Brain project website
- Henry Markram : The Blue Brain Project . Nature Neuroscience Review, 7: 153-160, 2006 February. PMID 16429124 .
Web links
- Understand the brain through simulation. In: NZZ Online from December 5, 2007
- BLUEBRAIN - A Documentary Film. A ten-year documentary about the Blue Brain project
Individual evidence
- ↑ EU research funding for the EPFL in Lausanne , swissinfo.ch, January 28, 2013, accessed on December 1, 2015
- ↑ a b Lars Fischer: Rat brain in the computer fuels dispute over brain project. Spektrum.de, October 9, 2015, accessed on October 11, 2015 .
- ↑ Reconstruction and simulation of neocortical microcircuitry. www.cell.com, October 8, 2015, accessed October 11, 2015 .