Building a virtual brain
Using high performance computers, the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest is leading an international effort to build the world’s first “virtual” brain. Sounds like science fiction, but it could be science fact within a decade.
A team of neuroscientists from Canada, the United States and Europe is using brain research data combined with computational neuroscience in an attempt to build a working model of a brain that would simulate what goes on in our heads as we recognize a face, read a book, listen to music, or do a myriad of other tasks.
Led by Dr. Randy McIntosh, Vice-President of Research at Baycrest and Director of the Rotman Research Institute, this multi-million dollar project is akin to decoding the human genome in its potential to improve human health. A virtual brain that works not exactly like, but close to, a real brain could advance neuroscience far beyond where it is today, bringing new hope to millions of people worldwide whose brains have been damaged by disease or injury or who are at risk for such in the future.
The project requires uploading vast amounts of data from the brains of thousands of healthy people, including children, into powerful computers. The information is from magnetic resonance images of how brains are structured and how the different regions function when performing various tasks.
“What the virtual brain is actually doing is taking these data and using computer models to regenerate how a healthy human brain works as a whole,” Dr. McIntosh explains. This will allow the scientists to develop the first “electronic atlas” of all functional networks in the brain.
In addition to information gathered from healthy brains, data from persons with brain damage or disease will be incorporated so that experiments such as giving the virtual brain a stroke, can be carried out to see how it tries to recover. Down the road, a better understanding of the effects of stroke and how the brain attempts to re-stabilize could help doctors more directly target therapies for patients.
Related Links