Lecture

Blue Brain: Neocortical Microcircuitry

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture introduces the Blue Brain project, a Swiss national research initiative in neuroscience. It covers the project's history, the first proof of principle regarding neocortical microcircuitry, standardized specimens and solutions, profiling the electrical behavior, microconnectomics, diversity of neuron morphologies, digitally reconstructing and simulating brain circuitry, informatics infrastructure, ion channel basis of electrical behavior, and the Channelome Project.

Official source

Quiz

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Neuroscience: Computational neuroscience

Related concepts (32)

Neural circuit

A neural circuit (also known as a biological neural network BNNs) is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Multiple neural circuits interconnect with one another to form large scale brain networks. Neural circuits have inspired the design of artificial neural networks, though there are significant differences. Early treatments of neural networks can be found in Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology, 3rd edition (1872), Theodor Meynert's Psychiatry (1884), William James' Principles of Psychology (1890), and Sigmund Freud's Project for a Scientific Psychology (composed 1895).

Brain simulation

Brain simulation is the concept of creating a functioning computer model of a brain or part of a brain. Brain simulation projects intend to contribute to a complete understanding of the brain, and eventually also assist the process of treating and diagnosing brain diseases. Various simulations from around the world have been fully or partially released as open source software, such as C. elegans, and the Blue Brain Project Showcase.

Artificial neural network

Artificial neural networks (ANNs, also shortened to neural networks (NNs) or neural nets) are a branch of machine learning models that are built using principles of neuronal organization discovered by connectionism in the biological neural networks constituting animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected units or nodes called artificial neurons, which loosely model the neurons in a biological brain. Each connection, like the synapses in a biological brain, can transmit a signal to other neurons.

Simulation hypothesis

The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of existence is a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation. This simulation could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live inside a simulation. This is quite different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality, which is easily distinguished from the experience of actuality. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to separate from "true" reality.

Brain

A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion neurons, and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion. Each neuron is connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons.

Related lectures (64)

Data-Driven Modeling in Neuroscience: Meenakshi Khosla

By Meenakshi Khosla explores data-driven modeling in large-scale naturalistic neuroscience, focusing on brain activity representation and computational models.

In Silico Neuroscience: Ion Channels and Neuronal Models

Explores detailed modeling of ion channels and neuronal morphologies in in silico neuroscience, covering neuron classification, ion channel kinetics, and experimental observations.

Scientific Computing in Neuroscience

Explores the history and tools of scientific computing in neuroscience, emphasizing the simulation of neurons and networks.

Brain Simulation Platform: SimUI Tutorial MOOC: Simulating a hippocampus micro-circuit

Covers a tutorial on simulating a hippocampus microcircuit using the user-friendly SimUI.

The Microcircuits of Striatum in Silico