BLUE BRAIN

Minuthi H U Student, ECE AIT, Chickmagalur Karnataka, India. minuthihu@gmail.com Manasa H L Student, CS&E AIT, Chickmagalur Karnataka, India hlmanasa06@gmail.com

Abstract
The human brain is the most complex device in the universe. An elaborate network of roughly 100 billion neurons, it stores our thoughts, feelings, dreams, fears, lusts, quirks, and memories. A cerebral system of 100 billion neurons is an advanced network configuration, but it is still a finite system. This technological platform is a daunting task for today's computers, certainly. Yet in Lausanne, Switzerland scientists have just recently managed to simulate an entire neocortical column inside a computer. Call it a very real first step. Blue brain the name of the worlds first virtual brain. That means a machine that can function as human brain. Today scientists are in research to create an artificial brain that can think, response, take decision, and keep anything in memory. The main aim is to upload human brain into machine. So that man can think, take decision without any effort. After the death of the body, the virtual brain will act as the man .So, even after the death of a person we will not lose the knowledge, intelligence, personalities, feelings and memories of that man that can be used for the development of the human society. No one has ever understood the complexity of human brain. It is complex than any circuitry in the world. So, question may arise Is it really possible to create a human brain? The answer is Yes. Because whatever man has created today always he has followed the nature. When man does not have a device called computer, it was a big question for all .But today it is possible due to the technology. Technology is growing faster than everything. IBM is now in research to create a virtual brain. It is called Blue brain .If possible, this would be the first virtual brain of the world

They are building brain models of different mammalian species (mouse, rat, cat, and monkey) first before reaching the human brain. Self-awareness and consciousness may also emerge if this phenomenon depends on neuronal, synaptic and/or molecular interactions.

Introduction
The first phase of the Blue Brain Project started after 15 years of systematically dissecting the microanatomical, genetic and electrical properties of the elementary unit of the neocortex a single neocortical column, which is a little larger than the head of a pin. The project has focused, however, not only on building a model of the neocortical column, but on developing a generic facility that could allow rapid modeling, simulation and experimentation of any brain region, if the data can be measured and provided according to specifications. The facility has been used to build the first model of the neocortical column, which consists of 10,000 3D digitizations of real neurons that are populated with model ion channels constrained. A parallel supercomputer is used to build the model and perform the experiments so that the behavior of the tissue can be predicted through simulations. With the present simulation facility, the technical feasibility to model a piece of neural tissue has been demonstrated.

Blue Brain
T h e n a m e o f t h e w o r l d s f i r s t v i r t u a l brain. That means a machine that can function as human brain. Today scientists are in research to create an articial brain that can think, response, take decision, and keep anything in memory. The main aim is to upload human brain into machine. So that man can think, take decision without any effort. After the death of the body, the virtual brain will act as the man .So, even after the death of a person we will not lose the knowledge, intelligence, personalities, feelings and memories of that man that can be used for the development of the human society. No one has ever understood the complexity of human brain. It is complex than any circuitry in the world. Virtual brain is an articial brain, which does not actually the natural brain, but can act as the brain. It can think like brain, take decisions based on the past experience and response as the natural brain can. It is possible by using a super computer, with a huge amount of storage capacity, processing power and an interface between the human brain and this articial one. Through this interface the data stored in the natural brain can be up loaded into the computer.

intelligent brain to have with. But the intelligence is lost along with the body after the death. The virtual brain is a solution to it. The brain and intelligence will alive even after the death. We often face difficulties in remembering things such as peoples names, their birthdays, and the spellings of words, proper grammar, important dates, history, facts etc... In the busy life every one want to be relaxed. Cant we use any machine to assist for all these? Virtual brain may be the solution to it.

Creating virtual brain

First, it is helpful to describe the basic manners in which a person may be uploaded into topic. In it, he computer. Raymond Kurzweil describes use both of an be invasive most be

recently provided an interesting paper on this and noninvasive promising robots, or able to technologies. The

is the

very small interface while we still

nanobots. provide

Theywill

with computers that is as close as our mind can reside in our biological form. Nanobots could also carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing connections would also a complete between record the readout current when of state the They of each neuron.

Need of virtual brain

Today we are developed because of our intelligence. Intelligence is the in born quality that cannot be created. Some people have this quality, so that they can think up to such an extent where other cannot reach. Human society is always needed of such intelligence and such an

the brain. This

information,

entered a

into a computer, could then continue to function as us. All that is required is computer with large enough storage space and processing power. Is the pattern and state of neuron connections in our brain truly all that makes up our conscious selves?Many people believe rmly those we possess a

soul,

while

some

very we

technical have

people to now

This microcircuit, known as the neocortical column (NCC), is repeated millions of times across the cortex. The difference between the brain of a mouse and the brain of a human is basically just volume humans have many more neocortical columns and thus neurons than mice. This structure lends itself to a systematic modeling approach. And indeed, the first step of the Blue Brain project is to re-create this fundamental microcircuit, down to the level of biologically accurate individual neurons. The microcircuit can then be used in simulations.

believe that quantum forces contribute to our awareness. But think technically. Note however, that we need not know how the brain actually functions, to transfer it to a computer. We need only know the media and contents. For this we have to first know how the human brain actually works

1.1 The Human Brain

The cerebral cortex that makes up 80% of the human brain is responsible for our ability to remember, think, reflect, empathize, communicate, adapt to new situations and plan for the future. The cortex first appeared in mammals, and it has a fundamentally simple repetitive structure that is the same across all mammalian species. The brain is populated with billions of neurons, each connected to thousands of its neighbors by dendrites and axons, a kind of biological "wiring"(see figure 1.1). The brain processes information by sending electrical signals from neuron to neuron along these wires. These units operate much like microcircuits in a computer.

Figure 1.2 Synaptical connections of neurons The brain performs many analog operations which cannot be performed by computers and in many cases it achieves hybrid digital-analog computing. The most important feature of the brain Figure 1.1 A typical neuron that makes it

different from computers is that it is constantly changing. If the resistors and capacitors in a computer started changing, then it would immediately malfunction, whereas in the brain such equivalent properties change constantly on the time scales of milliseconds to years. The brain is more like a dynamically morphing computer.

models out there, but his is the only one that is totally biologically accurate. That step came out of Project Blue Brain, a joint initiative since 2005 pairing IBM and the Federale de Lausanne Ecole Polytechnique (EPFL) to craft a working digital model of brain function using IBMs powerful Blue Gene supercomputer. Within a year, the project had created a functional model of the neocortical column which, according to the researchers' website, "can reconstruct biologically

THE BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations. The Blue Brain team is a model, that they have compiled decades worth of research on cellular connectivity to assemble a mass network

accurate neurons based on detailed experimental data, and automatically connect them in a biological manner, a task that involves positioning around 30 million synapses in precise 3D locations". This virtual neocortical column contained 10,000 neurons. The implications speak for themselves. With the immense strides in processing power each year, Project Blue Brain expects to eventually reverse engineer the entire human brain.

of

microchips that will function together a whole precisely the way the brain does. Each microchip equals one neuron, and is programmed to respond to input and form connections to other microchips in exactly the way that a specific type of neuron would. When data is fed into the whole system, it behaves as a group of neurons in the brain would behave. In addition, the Blue Brain computer network is connected to a visualization interface, which translates the circuitry into a 3-dimensional visual model that looks like a cluster of neurons. This allows the Blue Brain team to see the virtual neurons responses to input. Building up the network means adding more microchips and connecting them to the existing network in the way that the human brain is connected. In this way, according to Markram, the Blue Brain is about as precise as it can get are a lot of

BUILDING THE MICROCIRCUIT

3.1 Modeling Neurons

Neurons are not all alike - they come in a variety of complex shapes. The precise shape and structure of a neuron influences its electrical properties and connectivity with other neurons. A neuron's electrical properties are determined to a large extent by a variety of ion channels distributed in varying densities throughout the cell's membrane. Scientists have been collecting data on neuron morphology and electrical behavior of the juvenile rat in the laboratory for many years, and this data is used as the basis for a model that is run on the Blue Gene to recreate each of the 10,000 neurons in the NCC. Each simple neocortex forms a complex network as in the figure 3.1

complex calculations; move, communicate, and work together; conduct molecular assembly; and, to some extent, repair or even replicate themselves. Nanobot.info is an informational site that provides information on both recent developments and future applications at the intersection of nanotechnology and robotics. Nanotechnology is the science and application of creating objects on a level smaller than Figure 3.1 neocortex in a brain 100 nanometers. Nanobots could also carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing a complete readout of the connection. This information, when entered into a computer, could then continue to function as us. Thus the data stored in the entire brain will be uploaded into the computer. brain emulation Mind-uploading would be a preservation against entropy and death (if it works). The uploaded mind would then wait, frozen like a fly in amber, until downloaded into a newly-repaired or cloned body. Or it could be accessed while still on computer; we can imagine a live person interacting in a virtual world with the consciousness of the recently deceased.

UPLOADING THE HUMAN BRAIN

Mind uploading or whole (sometimes called mind transfer or electronic transcendence) is the hypothetical process of scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device. The

simulated mind is

assumed to be part of a virtual reality simulated world, supported by a simplified

body simulation model. Alternatively, the simulated mind is assumed to reside in a computer inside (or connected to) a biological body or a humanoid robot. The uploading is possible by the use of small robots known as the nanobots. These robots are small enough to travel throughout our circulatory system. Traveling into the spine and brain, they will be able to monitor the activity and structure of our central nervous system. They will be able to provide an interface with computer that is as close as our mind can be while we still reside in our biological form. Advanced nanobots will be able to sense and adapt to environmental stimuli such as heat, light, sounds, surface textures, and chemicals; perform

Application of blue brain

Detailed, biologically accurate brain si m u l a t i o n s o f f e r t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o answe r some fundamental questions about the brain that cannot be addressed with any current experimental include, Despite a century research, of we experimental are unable dentition of different or and to ion of the synaptic theoretical or theoretical approaches. These

provide a comprehensive computational channels, function receptors,

neurons

pathways in the brain. A detailed model will allow fine control of any of these elements.

Atpresent, detailed, accuratebrainsimul a t i o n s a r e t h e o n l y a p p r o a c h t h a t c o u l d allow us to explain why the brain needs to use many different ion channels, neurons a n d s y n a p s e s , a s p e c t r u m o f r e c e p t o r s , rather than the simplied uniform types found in many models. Gathering and Testing 100 Years of Data. C r a c k i n g t h e N e u r a l C o d e . Novel Tool for Drug Discovery for Brain Disorders

of the worlds most powerful supercomputers; the human brain is made of thousands as many NCC s as an entire rat brain. The virtual human brain would need 500 x 1015 bytes, which is more than 200 times the amount of data stored on all of Googles servers. In addition to potential technological restrictions, the team faces increasingly limited electrical resources.. Another fear is found today with respect to human cloning.

ADVANTAGES
Gathering and Testing 100 Years of Data
Cracking the Neural Code Understanding Processing A Novel Tool for Drug Discovery for Brain Disorders A Global Facility. A Foundation for Whole Brain Simulations A Foundation for Molecular Modeling of Brain Function Remedies to most brain disorders. Neocortical Information

FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
The synthesis era in neuroscience started with the launch of the Human Brain Project and is an inevitable phase triggered by a critical amount of fundamental data. T h e data set does not need to be complete before such a phase can begin. Indeed, i t is essential to guide reductionist research into the deeper facets of brain structure and function. As a complement to experimental research, it offers rapid assessment of the probable effect of a new nding on pre existing knowledge, which can no longer be managed completely models by any will one probably

We can remember things without any effort

researcher. Detailed

Decision can be made without the presence of a person.

become the nal form of databases that are used to organize all knowledge of the brain and allow hypothesis testing, rapid diagnoses of brain malfunction, as well as development of treatments for neurological disorders. In short, we can hope to learn a great deal about brain function and disfunction from accurate models

DISADVANTAGES
The major drawback is the limited technology resources, building one rat NCC required one

of the brain .The time taken to build detailed models of the brain depends on the level of detail that is captured. Indeed, the rst version of the Blue Column, which has 10,000 neurons, has already been built and simulated; it is the renement of the detailed properties of the next and calibration time. A brain entire of model at the the circuit that takes cellular level will

The author is willing to present this project to the medical field in order to recognize the brain disorders. The Blue Brain will provide a huge leap in our understanding of brain function and dysfunction and help us explore solutions to intractable problems in mental health and neurological disease. A careful maintenance is necessary otherwise individuals may use it for destructive purposes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Markram, H., The blue brain project, Nat Rev Neurosci. 7, 153-160. [2] MODEL-BASED REASONING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE,. Constructivist Research and InfoComputational Knowledge Generation, Abduction, Logic, and Computational Discovery University of Campinas, Brazil, 17-19 December, 2009. [3] Hines, M. et al., Fully Implicit Parallel Simulation of Single Neurons, J. Comput. Neurosci., 25(3):439-48, 2008.

probably take the decade. There is to modeling

no fundamental obstacle

t h e brain and it is therefore likely that we will have detailed models of mammalian brains, including that of man, in the near future. Even if overestimated by a decade or two, this is still just a blink of an eye in relation to the evolution of human civilization. As with Deep Blue, Blue Brain will allow us to challenge the foundations of our understanding of intelligence consciousness. and generate new theories of

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we will be able to transfer ourselves into computers at some point. Most arguments against this outcome are seemingly easy to circumvent. They are either simple minded, or simply require further time for technology to increase. The only serious threats raised are also overcome as we note the combination of biological and digital technologies. As per the development team the Blue brain is expected to be available to the world by 2017. After some years they will personalize it thereafter we will be able to transfer our self into a computer.

[4] Kozloski, J. et al., Identifying, tabulating, and

analyzing contacts between branched neuron morphologies, IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol 52, Number 1/2, 2008 [5] Pablo de Heras Ciechomski and Robin Mange, REALTIME NEOCORTICAL COLUMN VISUALIZATION, Visualbiotech, PSE-C EPFL, 1015 Ecublens, Switzerland. [Courtesy : http://www.visualbiotech.ch] [6] Blue Brain Wikipedia. [Courtesy http://www.wikipedia.co /bluebrain]