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High-Resolution Brain Atlases in CyberSpace
Neubrain writes "After a long decade of the U.S. sponsored Human Brain Project, we still have not advanced our understanding of brain structure and function very far. In particular, the availability of online high-resolution brain atlases has been sorely lacking, though the technology and means have been around for well over a decade. This has been remedied by the recent appearance of online high-resolution atlases at a new site called Primate-Brain.org, whose official description is: "The Primate Brain Atlas is a digital cytoarchitectural atlas based on high-resolution images of serial sections of monkey brains that is fully integrated with a high-speed database server for querying and retrieving data about primate brain structure and function over the internet." Maybe this is the start of something that is going to advance our understanding of brain structure and function rapidly? You be the judge. Ever wonder what's going on inside your head. Well, now you can go and look in excruciating detail at primate-brain.org . Happy brain hunting!"
Is the resolution high enough to trace neurone connections? Does it contain information about concentrations of signalling chemicals? :)
What about writing an emulator?
That's NOT a stupid question! The hidden suggestion in the work is that we know a lot more about the brain than we really do, and that having brain scans will tell us enough to make a big difference. The scans are valuable, but we are at the beginning of understanding the brain.
Those who think that a scan of the brain will tell us much about the operation can do a thought experiment: Have your computer scanned, and try to see from the photos which programs were running, and how those programs operate.
Futurepower writes: "Those who think that a scan of the brain will tell us much about the operation can do a thought experiment: Have your computer scanned, and try to see from the photos which programs were running, and how those programs operate."
Very true, but the organization of computer hardware says A LOT about the types of software that can run on it. In neuroscience, there's a saying that structure implies function, or that neuroanatomy implies (or constrains) neural function. In understanding the brain, we have to get the neuroanatomy nailed down before we can start making general inferences about brain function. The site at http://primate-brain.org/ is a step in the direction of nailing down the neuroanatomy at the sub-micron level, and thus is a key step towards understanding the full complexity of brain function.
What the site needs, and maybe they intend to do this at some point, is more data, including tracer, EM, and neurophysiological data. Additional immunocytochemical data and in situ results would be appreciated too.
If Freudian slips really are an insight into the subconscious mind, I don't want to know...
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WhatI would like to know and which no-one has addressed is, what exactly has the US-Sponsored Human Brain Project accomplished over 10 long years?? Apparently they dropped the ball on making high-resolution atlases available online in a timely fashion. What else have they dropped the ball on? Why isn't the Human Brain Project as successful as the Human Genome Project, which already has the entire human genome sequenced and available online? With the exception of these high-resolution atlases that are finally available online (and they should have been TEN years ago), why hasn't the Human Brain Project accomplished more? Don't tell me it's due to the complexity of the brain, because there are database methodologies, XML, and RDF that should be able to handle any and all complexities. So, my question is, has the Human Brain Project dropped the ball, and if so, then who's responsible, and what are we going to do about it?
Sorry I originally posted this as a reply to someone's comment when it should have been a separate thread. So here goes:
What I would like to know and which no-one has addressed is, what exactly has the US-Sponsored Human Brain Project accomplished over 10 long years?? Apparently they dropped the ball on making high-resolution atlases available online in a timely fashion. What else have they dropped the ball on? Why isn't the Human Brain Project as successful as the Human Genome Project, which already has the entire human genome sequenced and available online? With the exception of these high-resolution atlases that are finally available online (and they should have been TEN years ago), why hasn't the Human Brain Project accomplished more? Don't tell me it's due to the complexity of the brain, because there are database methodologies, XML, and RDF that should be able to handle any and all complexities. So, my question is, has the Human Brain Project dropped the ball, and if so, then who's responsible, and what are we going to do about it?
And while we're on the subject, why hasn't the mystery of the human brain been solved yet? With all the computational power at our disposal, and with all of our technologies and manpower, why hasn't the brain been figured out already? Are we that stupid that we can't even figure out how our own brains work?
I'll tell you what, if we don't figure this out and have the brain solved in short time, then it doesn't bode well for the human race.
"Give the afflicted one well-grilled, fresh-killed, monkey brain" (sorry!)