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C. elegans (a type of nematode) is even simpler, with exactly 302 neurons and ~15k synapses. But despite having the complete connectome, there has to date been
by joeyo 14y ago
C. elegans (a type of nematode) is even simpler, with exactly 302 neurons and ~15k synapses. But despite having the complete connectome, there has to date been only limited success at simulating the whole worm. Although see: https://code.google.com/p/openworm/ https://code.google.com/p/openworm/
Edit: Also see the NYT article below.
- tsotha 14y agoHow do you know when you've simulated a worm's brain correctly? I mean, they don't actually do much, do they?
- rcthompson 14y agoWorms (C. elegans specifically) have specific well-documented responses to certain stimuli. You can apply those same stimuli to your simulated worm and see if it responds like a typical real worm.
- gouranga 14y agoSort of like a wormy unit test. Strange thought!
- rcthompson 14y agoActually that's pretty much what they are. There us a whole battery of stimulus stimulus-response tests that are essentially used as a regression test suite to figure out what deleterious (or even beneficial) effect a given mutation has. Of course these "tests" must be manually carried out by researchers on live worms.