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Blue Brain Project

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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2010) The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. The aim of the project, founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (Switzerland) is to study the brain's architectural and functional principles. The project is headed by the Institute's director, Henry Markram. Using a Blue Gene supercomputer running Michael Hines's NEURON software, the simulation does not consist simply of an artificial neural network, but involves a biologically realistic model of neurons.[1][2][not in citation given] It is hoped that it will eventually shed light on the nature of consciousness.[citation needed] There are a number of sub-projects, including the Cajal Blue Brain, coordinated by the Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid (CeSViMa), and others run by universities and independent laboratories in the UK, US, and Israel.
Contents 1 Goals 1.1 Neocortical column modelling 1.2 Whole brain simulation 2 Progress 2.1 Funding 2.2 Cajal Blue Brain (Spain) 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

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Goals
Neocortical column modelling

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The initial goal of the project, completed in December 2006,[3] was the simulation of a rat neocortical column, which can be considered the smallest functional unit of the neocortex (the part of the brain thought to be responsible for higher functions such as conscious thought). Such a column is about 2 mm tall, has a diameter of 0.5 mm and contains about 60,000 neurons in humans; rat neocortical columns are very similar in structure but contain only 10,000 neurons (and 108 synapses). Between 1995 and 2005, Markram mapped the types of neurons and their connections in such a column.

Whole brain simulation

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A longer term goal is to build a detailed, functional simulation of the physiological processes in the human brain: "It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years," Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project said in 2009 at the TED conference in Oxford.[4] In a BBC World Service interview he said: "If we build it correctly it should speak and have an intelligence and behave very much as a human does."[4]

Progress

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In November 2007,[5] the project reported the end of the first phase, delivering a data-driven process for creating, validating, and researching the neocortical column. By 2005 the first single cellular model was completed. The first artificial cellular neocortical column of 10,000 cells was built by 2008. By July 2011 a cellular mesocircuit of 100 neocortical columns with a million cells in total was built. A cellular rat brain is planned for 2014 with 100 mesocircuits totalling a hundred million cells. Finally a cellular human brain is predicted possible by 2023 equivalent to 1000 rat brains with a total of a hundred billion cells.[6][7] Now that the column is finished, the project is currently busying itself with the publishing of initial results in scientific literature, and pursuing two separate goals: 1. construction of a simulation on the molecular level,[1] which is desirable since it allows studying the effects of gene expression; 2. simplification of the column simulation to allow for parallel simulation of large numbers of connected columns, with the ultimate goal of simulating a whole neocortex (which in humans consists of about 1 million cortical columns).

Funding
The project is funded primarily by the Swiss government and secondarily by grants and some donations from private individuals. The EPFL bought the Blue Gene computer at a reduced cost because at that stage it was still a prototype and IBM was interested in exploring how different applications would perform on the machine. BBP was a kind of beta tester.[8]

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The project is a candidate for a Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research grant from the European Commission. The grant would bring in 1 billion over 10 years. The final decision on the grant is expected in the second half of 2012. If the grant is awarded, the project will be renamed the Human Brain Project.[9]

Cajal Blue Brain (Spain)

The Cajal Blue Brain[10] is coordinated by the Technical University of Madrid and uses the facilities of the Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid and its supercomputer Magerit. The Cajal Institute also participates in this collaboration. The main lines of research currently being pursued at Cajal Blue Brain include neurological experimentation and computer simulations. Nanotechnology, in the form of a newly designed brain microscope, plays an important role in its research plans.
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Cajal Blue Brain used Magerit supercomputer (CeSViMa)

See also
Artificial brain Artificial intelligence Artificial neural network Cognitive science Neural network Neuroinformatics Social simulation Whole brain emulation

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Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ^ a b Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "Mission to build a simulated brain begins" ^ Palmer, Jason. Simulated brain closer to thought , BBC News. ^ "Project Milestones" . Blue Brain. Retrieved 2008-08-11.

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, NewScientist, June 2005.

^ a b Jonathan Fildes (22 July 2009). "Artificial brain '10 years away'" . BBC News. Retrieved 2011-0107. ^ "News and Media information" . Blue Brain. Retrieved 2008-08-11. ^ "Henry Markram: Simulating the brain; the next decisive years, video [3/3 07:00"]. Retrieved 201108-29. Generated by ^ "Henry Markram: Simulating the brain; the next decisive yearswww.PDFonFly.com at 4/6/2012 5:23:53 AM - 07:00" . Retrieved 2011-08-29. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Brain_Project

8. 9. 10. 11.

^ "Blue Brain Project - IBM has not withdrawn support" . Henry Markram, Project Director as quoted by IBM Switzerland to Technology Report on January 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-14. ^ "European researchers chase billion-euro technology prize" . Nature, March 8, 2011. ^ "Cajal Blue Brain Project" . Retrieved 2011-01-07. ^ "Nanotechnology Microscope for Brain Studies" . Retrieved 2011-01-07.

References
IBM Aims To Simulate A Brain , Forbes, 6 June 2005.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Blue Brain Project

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Mission to build a simulated brain begins , [New Scientist] News, 6 June 2005. Blue Brain Project site FAQ on Blue Brain . NCS documentation . NEURON documentation . , Lausanne.

Henry Markram, "The Blue Brain Project", Nature Reviews Neuroscience February. PMID 16429124 . Growing a Brain in Switzerland , Der Spiegel, 7 February 2007

, 7:153-160, 2006

Out of the Blue -- Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer? , Seed Magazine, March 2008 Reconstructing the Heart of Mammalian Intelligence The Blue Brain Project The Blue Brain Project an Interview with Idan Segev. BBC News 22 April 2009 Henry Markram's Lecture, March 4, 2008. Henry Markram's Lecture, Neuro Informatics 2008.

Simulated brain closer to thought

Firing Up the Blue Brain -"We Are 10 Years Away From a Functional Artificial Human Brain" Luke McKinney, July 2009 Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer Indian startup to help copy your brain on computers TED Conference. July 2009 Silicon India. 1 February 2010 [edit]

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