Brain Project Predicts Connections Between Neurons

Brain Project Predicts Connections Between Neurons

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Researchers said a new computerized model of part of a rat’s cortex predicts connections between neurons, which could help explain how the brains of mammals — including humans — work.

“This is a major breakthrough because it would otherwise take decades, if not centuries, to map the location of each synapse in the brain,” said Henry Markram, head of the Blue Brain Project at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. Launched in 2005, the project aims to develop a virtual mammal brain by 2018.