Rat Blue Brain Project Launched; Details Released As Documentary Set For 2020!
The first major result of a neuroscience project that intends to simulate the brain in a supercomputer has already published. The Project is called the Rat Blue Brain Project and is led by Neurobiologist Henry Markram.
According to the source cited below, the goal of the Rat Blue Brain Project is to study the brain's structure and function principles through a biologically detailed computer simulation. It is a digital clone of circuitry in a rodent's brain used as the model. This simulation will provide deep observation on how the brain works.
Moreso, it shows some 31,000 virtual brain cells linked by 37 million synapses, according to Nature International weekly journal of science. A supercomputer that acts as a real brain with a processor that can run up to 22.8 trillion operations per second that is programmed to act as a real neuron inside a real brain that can precisely clone the cellular events inside a mind reported in seedmagazine.
The rat Blue Brain Project was launched on 2005 and linked to a decade-long Human Brain Project that helped Markram grant fund from the European Commission.
"There are lots of models out there, but this is the only one that is totally biologically accurate." Markram said about the study.
To provide Markram's peek of vision, the rat-brain model was described on October 8, 2015 on a paper in the journal Cell. An effort from 80 researchers from 12 different countries collaboration resulted the model to show tiny regions from its primary cortex, which can receive sensory information from different parts of its body and its whiskers. However, the project has limitations since it cannot copy every aspect of the cortex including the blood vessels, the brain's non-neuronal cells and even the plasticity.
Despite the criticisms, Markram remains undeterred and points out that the first model is an imperfect draft but will improve as a specific from more biological experiments to be added.
"This is a big challenge for supercomputers, but we're working very closely with IBM to improve the technology," he said, as quoted from the source above. The human brain requires computational challenges and billion times more than of the rat's brain simulation.
After years of work at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a 10-part documentary will be released on 2020. It will show Markram and the rest of the team's insight within the rat Blue Brain Project. The filming started in 2009 and related research efforts across the world will be included into the film as reference from Wikipedia.
