“The great paradox of the brain is that everything we know about the world comes from an organ that has never seen it. It exists in silence and darkness, like a prisoner in a dungeon. It has literally no pain receptors or feelings. It has never felt “the warm heat of the sun or the coolness of a breeze. To your brain, the world is nothing more than a torrent of electrical impulses, like Morse code signals,” the journalist wrote. Bill Brysonin “Body: a guide for users”. Although The brain represents only two percent of a human being’s body weight.needs to take, to function, twenty percent of your energy.
At Bryson’s request, scientists from the Durham University (in England) made some calculations: a small piece of cerebral cortex measuring one cubic millimeter (the size of a grain of sand) can contain two thousand terabytes of informationenough quantity to store all the movies ever made or 1.2 billion books of 400 pages each. And this is just a minimum of information to give an idea of what our brain is, which for ten years was the axis of meticulous scientific monitoring: the Human Brain Project (HBP)launched in 2013 by institutes and universities of Europe.
“The Human Brain Project will create the largest experimental facility in the world to develop the most detailed model of the brain, to study how the human brain works and, ultimately, to develop personalized treatment for neurological and related diseases,” the enthusiast promised. official statement.
Was the decade of the brain, the moment of neuroscience, that period in which based and profound scientific books were mixed in bookstores with writings flavored with recipes to “think better.” The vast majority of the titles of the works included the word “brain” and many adverbs ending in “mind.” A decade later, and after the contribution of 607 million euros released in four stagesthe European Union decided that the HBP comes to an end. An ambitious plan that provided virtual models and brain simulations, and at the same time faces accusations of alleged mismanagement and lack of vision.
The objectives
In 2009, the neuroscientist Henry Markram gave a TED talk. “Our mission is to build a detailed and realistic computer model of the human brain,” she said at the time. The reasons given? That understanding the human brain was essential to function in society; that experimenting with animal brains is a limited action and would not allow scientists to fully understand what human brains are like and how they work; and that there were no sufficiently efficient medications for mental disorders at that time.
Shortly after, in 2013, the Human Brain Project began, funded by the European Union, with the final goal of simulate the entire human brainneuron by neuron, on a supercomputer by the end of 2023 (i.e., create a virtual replica of it). More of 500 researchers from 123 scientific institutions in 16 countries They were hired to achieve it. He main objective could not be metalthough other findings were made, and the project helped advance neuroscience more than some incredulous experts expected (the project had strong criticism from its beginnings, there were many scientists who considered that brain mapping was something limited and biased), specifically in the area of brain simulations and virtual models.
Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines technology, such as artificial intelligence and digital simulations, with neuroscience, the HBP worked to gain a deeper understanding of the complicated structure and functions of the human brain, which in some cases led to novel treatments for certain brain disorders. Virtual maps and simulations that several HBP teams created using brain imaging data now make it easier for neuroscientists to understand brain development and functions. The teams published these models on the EBRAINS online platform of the HBP, one of the first to offer access to such data to specialists around the world through an open source site.
Achievements and failures
A virtual atlas consolidates the microscopic, anatomical and functional mapping of 200 brain regions. The digital models created allow understand processes such as memoryand diseases such as epilepsy, develop brain implants to treat blindness and to advance treatments for various brain conditions. A group of researchers used the atlas and computational tools to develop specific activity stimulation programs that allowed paraplegic patients to move again. Another study analyzed simulations of the Alzheimer’s disease in the brain to understand how it evolves over time.
Having a virtual model of the human brain allows simulate millions of experiments under a variety of very different conditions. And using simulations also gives scientists and doctors the option to save time and money when diagnosing and treating a patient with brain disorders.
However, many experts believe that it is too early to say whether brain simulations could change treatments for a disease, for example, such as epilepsy. They think that it is not yet feasible to establish a clear link between the different HBP project areas and patient care.
The project faced critics referred to its administration from almost the beginning, to the point that three years after it began, 150 neuroscientists asked that the enormous amount of resources of the project stop being in the hands of the handful of researchers who were in charge of directing the project.
But other challenges were strictly scientific-related, and remain difficult to overcome even with computer simulations. And the object of research is far from simple: The human brain has approximately 86 billion neurons., interconnected by up to 100 billion synapses. More than the total number of stars in our galaxy. There are more than 100 different types of cells, a unique immune system, and connections that reorganize with every learning experience, every exercise, every night of sleep.
Even knowing the main areas of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, thalamus, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, amygdala, hippocampus and medulla oblongata, we still know is far from understanding it. How is the brain organized at a deeper level that includes cellular, molecular, and genetic expression patterns and relationships? The brain does not live isolated, in a vacuum bubble, but integrated into a body, an organism, a person, which provides its own particularities and unique qualities. How does this whole thing work, this conglomeration of neuronal connections and cells? It is a question without a real answer.
In the heart, the three billion cells contract with each electrical shot to pump blood; in the kidneys, small capillaries filter plasma to eliminate toxins; In the immune system, defense cells wait for the unknown to trigger a torrent of antibodies. How is biochemical activity generated in neurons, thoughts and consciousness? This is still an unknown.
Meanwhile, big brain projects were launched or put into motion elsewhere. USA and Japan they launched their initiatives around the same time as the HBP; the first will continue until 2026 and the second hopes to operate for a total of 15 years. The brain project China started in 2021, and the projects Australia and South Korea They are already in their seventh year.
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