4 ms·
They use it to understand brain. So they wire it like the brain is wired. If they simulate cortex, they wire arrange it into cortical columns (size of each col
by hannibal5 13y ago
They use it to understand brain. So they wire it like the brain is wired.
If they simulate cortex, they wire arrange it into cortical columns (size of each column is between 50,000 and 100,000 neurons and there is over two million of them). Those columns have many different layers and neuron types. Understanding how cortical columns and minicolumns work is very important.
- pixie_ 13y agoEach neuron is growing, making decisions about it's environment, reacting to a multitude of neurotransmitters with a mulititude of complex reactions. Deciding where are when to make a new connection. If each node is a little computer system how do we even begin to emulate its probably extensive and convoluted 'programming.'
- pygy_ 13y agoYou made my point regarding small scale simulation, but completely missed the rest. > So they wire it like the brain is wired. As if anyone knew how to do that. Even assuming that you can do both accurate micro-tractography and extract cell-by cell epigenetic information out of a single column, you'd still be missing other cricial information like individual synaptic strength. I'm not talking about cortico-thalamic connections (required to model epilepsy) inter-columnar connections, and whatever regulation happens in the white matter. Relying on the probability distribution of connections as a crude approximation is useful, but far from the real deal.