This work, led by a team of researchers from the Allen Institute in the US and the University of Electronic Communications in Japan, could help medical professionals model and study diseases like Alzheimer's in more detail.
This simulation displays the entire cerebral cortex of a mouse. Although not as large and complex as the human brain, which contains billions of neurons, the mouse brain has similarities to the human brain. Therefore, this could be a very useful research tool.
A real, complete mouse brain contains approximately 70 million neurons in a space the size of an almond. This virtual brain, however, boasts remarkable features: it contains 9 million neurons and 26 billion synapses. Furthermore, it has 86 interconnected brain regions and can process trillions of calculations per second.
"This shows that the door has opened," said neuroscientist Anton Arkhipov at the Allen Institute. "We can run these kinds of brain simulations efficiently with sufficient computing power."
"This is a technological milestone that instills confidence that much larger models are not only feasible but also achievable with greater accuracy and on a larger scale."
The complexity of the simulation allows researchers to observe the propagation of cognitive patterns, consciousness, and disease within the brain. It's a moving, three-dimensional map showing how each individual neuron functions and connects.
According to the researchers, some ways this method could be used include testing hypotheses about how seizures propagate through the brain, or how brainwaves contribute to concentration, without requiring extensive invasive brain scans.
The necessary computing power was provided by the Fugaku supercomputer in Japan, built upon existing databases and cell diagrams to form the model. The research team also developed new software to process brain activity more efficiently and minimize unnecessary calculations.
"Fugaku is used for research in many fields of computational science, such as astronomy, meteorology, and drug development, contributing to solving many social problems," said computer scientist Tadashi Yamazaki at the University of Electronic Communications.
"This time, we used Fugaku to simulate neural circuits."
Of course, our brains are essential for good physical and mental health, as well as healthy aging, and research on virtual brain mapping and microbrain structures will be crucial to learning more about how this organ works and how it can be damaged.
The research team has been actively developing a new model, exploring brainwave synchronization and how the two hemispheres of a mouse's brain interact.
This is an incredibly impressive feat of computing and biological modeling, but the researchers have even bigger plans, and one day they want to build a complete human brain model inside a virtual computing space.
"Our long-term goal is to build comprehensive brain models, even human brain models, using all the biological details our Institute is exploring," said scientist Arkhipov. "Currently, we are moving from modeling individual brain regions to simulating the entire mouse brain."
The research was presented at the SC25 supercomputing conference.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/sieu-may-tinh-tao-ra-mot-trong-nhung-bo-nao-ao-chan-thuc-nhat-20251209023554465.htm
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