Project creates computer simulation of rat brain cortex
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029276
Nature : An ambitious project to create a synthetic brain has been undertaken by Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues. The Blue Brain Project , which was launched in 2005, seeks to study brain architecture and function through the use of highly complex computer simulations. In a paper published in the journal Cell , the researchers say they have reached their first milestone: the digital reconstruction of a rat’s primary somatosensory cortex. Although the computer model only represents a simplified version of one fragment of a rat’s brain, Markram claims it provides a way to manipulate the brain’s cortical circuitry that can’t be done using real subjects. The project has been criticized because of the large amount of computing time required compared with the results achieved.
