Just as astrophysicists look out to unravel the mechanics of stars, neuroscientists look inward to unravel the mysteries of the human brain. This ambitious journey, this desire for science born several decades ago, today has its greatest representative in the form of a research project: the initiative is called Blue Brain and was born in 2005 by the hand of Swiss professor Henry Markram.
It is of human nature to draw maps that represent the discoveries of an exploration, in this way they can be saved to be transmitted and studied by others.
- Just as the New World Maps.
- Made of ink and paper.
- Represented the paths of a new continent.
- The Blue Brain project seeks to create a digital map that models the brain’s neural circuits in the most accurate way known to date.
- Human beings and how they are activated.
It is a map that will allow us to know all the corners of this organ
To arrive at an accurate representation of the architecture and functional dynamics of the human brain, digital reconstruction of the rodent brain was carried out as a starting point.
It was in May, 14 years ago, that the Brain and Spirit Institute of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne proposed biologically reconstructing the structure and function of the brain.
The technique used is retroengineering and the project is based on simulations and brain representations.
The choice of rodent brain as a representative basis of the human brain, certainly much more complex, is based on similarity. The technology behind this initiative is backed by the Blue Gene supercomputer, which works with the NEURON software.
“With each stimulus that triggers an emotion, new connections are created between groups of cells in our brain. “Eduard Punset Casals?
The empirical basis of the project and the model used for this base is a map of the connections between neurons in the brain known as conectoma.
Therefore, this model involves a realistic numerical simulation of brain neurons in biological terms, with the aim of becoming an encyclopedia of the mysteries of the brain and mind.
A project of this magnitude could hardly be carried out without international collaboration; As a result, other projects are being developed that support and complement Blue Brain.
The reconstructions and simulations that the supercomputer allows Blue Brain to introduce us to take a radically new approach to understanding how the brain works, bringing it closer as a multi-layered structure.
This training in? It would adapt to the functional diversity of the mind with all its complexities.
This perspective makes viable one of the most difficult scientific challenges facing modern science: understanding the brain as a complex multiscale system, work for which this type of neuroscience simulation is fundamental.
The surprising detail with which neural modeling operates in this project would eventually involve the construction of a brain simulation at the molecular level, which in turn would open the door to the study of the effects of gene expression.
Clinical benefits are expected to be unprecedented
In addition to the clinical benefits that such a deep knowledge of the human brain would bring, there is a ultimate goal that intersects with the most practical and raises even more mysteries in the popular imagination.
Untangling the complex articulation of parts of the human brain would, in principle, lead to a deeper understanding of human consciousness, a goal that hundreds of scientists and thinkers have strived to achieve throughout human history.
For now, as a prelude to the exciting discoveries to come, the Blue Brain project launched its first 3D digital neural atlas last year.
It provides information on the types of brain cells, their number and the position of a total of 737 brain regions.
Changing the classic hardcover neuroanatomy manual, with its two-dimensional drawings, to such a 3D atlas, is at least a big step for humanity.