The Blue Brain Project

 BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

                      Knowledge of the brain is highly fragmented and we have no way to prioritize the many experiments needed to fill the gaps in our understanding. It is time for a strategy of global collaboration, where scientists of all disciplines work together to solve this problem. A new project was proposed inorder to build a platform to catalyze efforts, integrate knowledge, and use supercomputers to simulate what is known about the brain, to predict gaps in our knowledge of the brain, and to test hypotheses about how it works. And that project was named as BLUE BRAIN: the first attempt to begin a systematic integration of all biological knowledge of the brain into unifying brain models for simulation on supercomputers.

The Blue Brain Project founded in May 2005, by the Brain and Mind Institute of the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ) is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. The project is carried out using a Blue Gene supercomputer which works using NEURON software.  The simulation does not consist simply of an artificial neural network, but involves a biologically realistic model of neurons. The Blue Brain project began in 2005 with an agreement between the EPFL and IBM, which supplied the BlueGene/L supercomputer acquired by EPFL to build the virtual brain.

                                                 Reconstructing the brain piece by piece and building a virtual brain in a supercomputer—these are some of the goals of the Blue Brain Project. The virtual brain will be an exceptional tool giving neuroscientists a new understanding of the brain and a better understanding of neurological diseases.  A realistic simulation could provide a better understanding of the way drugs act on the brain, and of their possible side effects. It could even help to develop completely new treatments. The Blue Brain project sets out to make neuroscientific research more efficient and in the long run will help to limit the need to use laboratory animals.

GOALS OF BLUE BRAIN PROJECT:                                              

 The Blue Brain project represents an essential first step toward achieving a complete virtual human brain. The researchers have demonstrated the validity of their method by developing a realistic model of a rat cortical column, consisting of about 10,000 neurons. Eventually, of course, the goal is to simulate systems of millions and hundreds of millions of neurons.

• Neocortical column modeling:

The initial goal of the project is completed in December 2006.It was the simulation of a rat neocortical column. The cortical column can be considered the basic unit of the cortex. Notably, it is by accumulating an ever-increasing number of columns that the brain has evolved over millions of years. Each column seems to be allotted to a simple yet essential function. For example, it has been possible to show that in the rat, one specific column is devoted to each whisker.

The cortical column is no larger than the head of a pin. In the rat, it contains only about 10,000 neurons. But as a basic unit, it represents an essential component of cerebral mechanics. That is why, initially, the researchers are working to simulate its functioning.

The Blue Brain project team has succeeded in isolating about fifty different types of neuron within the cortical column. As in an ecosystem, each “species” differs from the others in essential characteristics such as morphology, behavior, population density  etc.

• Move From the Real to the Virtual:

The researchers have been working to explain the behavior of and the way they connect to form circuits. This kind of knowledge makes it possible to isolate basic principles they can incorporate in their simulations.

The scientists have translated their observations into mathematics, developing powerful algorithms to represent neuronal behavior in a realistic way, and to make the best possible use of supercomputing power.

                                 Blue Brain is a resounding success. In five years of work, Henry Markram’s (head of the project) team has perfected a facility that can create realistic models of one of the brain’s essential building blocks. This process is entirely data driven and essentially automatically executed on the supercomputer. Meanwhile the generated models show a behavior already observed in years of neuroscientific experiments. These models will be basic building blocks for larger scale models leading towards a complete virtual brain.