Researchers Simulate Rat's Brain

slick_shoes writes: Researchers working on the 'Blue Brain' project have developed a computer simulation of the neocortical column — the basic building block of the neocortex, the higher functioning part of our brains — of a two-week-old rat, and it behaves exactly like its biological counterpart. The machine that simulates this column is an IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer. Project director Henry Markram believes that with the state of technology today, it is possible to build an entire rat's neocortex. From there, it's cats, then monkeys and finally, a human brain.

more information and clips of simulations

[mrcgran]

at http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page18701.html [bluebrain.epfl.ch]

some pictures here too: http://mediatheque.epfl.ch/sv/Blue_brain [mediatheque.epfl.ch]

Hardly novel...

[Stanislav_J]

We've had simulations of rats' brains around for years. They're called politicians.