Blue Brain- The Future Technology

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO BLUE BRAIN

The ability of a man to control the environment in which he lives is what makes him
distinctively different from the other species. His intellectual skills place him at the most
superior level of the animal kingdom. Thus, underlying all human abilities lie the essential
attributes of intelligence. Intelligence refers to the ability to understand, think, act, interpret
and predict the future to achieve and handle relationships, concepts etc. It helps in decision
making, problem solving, learning and reasoning. Intelligence thus plays a very important role
in survival and progress beyond the present. Technology has been progressing to a great extend
such that even the human brains are being created artificially through the science of artificial
intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence in machines which makes
it behave like a human being. It is the study and design of intelligent agents where an intelligent
agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of
success.

Blue brain in the first artificial brain to be developed. The technology that works behind
the blue brain is called the blue brain technology. The blue brain is created using the artificial
neural network. On 1 July 2005, the Brain Mind Institute (BMI, at the Ecole Polytechnique
Fidrale de Lausanne) and IBM (International Business Machines) launched the Blue Brain
Project. The aims of this ambitious initiative are to simulate the brains of mammals with a high
level of biological accuracy and, ultimately, to study the steps involved in the emergence of
biological intelligence. The Blue Brain Project plans to reverse engineer the human brain as a
supercomputer simulation. It is hoped that a rat brain neocortical simulation (21 million
neurons) will be achieved by the end of 2014. A full human brain simulation (86 billion
neurons) should be possible by 2023 provided sufficient funding is received. Researchers want
to use this technology to develop new therapies for the brain diseases and also new computer
technologies.

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1.2 ORGANISATION OF THESIS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In Chapter 1, It deals with the introduction to the Blue-Brain Technology.

CHAPTER 2: BLUE BRAIN AND ITS NEED

In Chapter 2, It deals about what is Blue Brain and explains why the Blue Brain is
needed.

CHAPTER 3: FUNCTIONING OF HUMAN BRAIN

In Chapter 3, It deals about the functioning of the natural human brain and comparison
between the natural and the artificial brain.

CHAPTER 4: NEURON & ITS WORK FLOW

In Chapter 4, It deals with the definition of Neuron and its workflow and the simulation
of the Neuron

CHAPTER 5: SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

In Chapter 5, It deals with the software required for the Blue Brain and the hardware
specifications required by the Blue Gene Supercomputer. It also includes the Architecture of
Blue Gene Supercomputer and Modelling and Simulation of the Microcircuit.

CHAPTER 6: NANO-BOTS & APPLICATIONS

In Chapter 6, It deals with the Introduction to Nano-bots i.e., Uploading them in to

human brain and it deals with the Merits, Demerits and also with the Applications of the Blue
Brain.

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION & CURRENT RESEARCH WORK

In Chapter 7, It deals with the Conclusion & Current Research Work. It also includes
References.

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

CHAPTER 2
BLUE BRAIN AND ITS NEED

2.1 WHAT IS BLUE BRAIN?

The IBM is now developing a virtual brain known as the Blue brain. It would be the
world’s first virtual brain. Within 30 years, we will be able to scan ourselves into the computers.
We can say it as Virtual Brain i.e. an artificial brain, which is not actually a natural brain, but
can act as a brain. It can think like brain, take decisions based on the past experience, and
respond as a natural brain. It is possible by using a super computer, with a huge amount of
storage Capacity, processing power and an interface between the human brain and artificial
one. Through this interface the data stored in the natural brain can be up loaded into the
computer. So the brain and the knowledge, intelligence of anyone can be kept and used for
ever, even after the death of the person.

2.2 NEED OF BLUE BRAIN

Today we are developed because of our intelligence. Intelligence is the inborn quality
that cannot be created. Some people have this quality, so that they can think up to such an
extent where other cannot reach. Human society is always in need of such intelligence and such
an intelligent brain to have with. But the intelligence is lost along with the body after the death.
The virtual brain is a solution to it. The brain and intelligence will be alive even after the death.
We often face difficulties in remembering things such as people names, their birthdays, and the
spellings of words, proper grammar, important dates, history facts, and etcetera. In the busy
life everyone wants to be relaxed. Can’t we use any machine to assist for all these? Virtual
brain may be a better solution for it. What will happen if we upload ourselves into computer,
we were simply aware of a computer, or maybe, what will happen if we lived in a computer as
a program?

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

CHAPTER 3
FUNCTIONING OF HUMAN BRAIN

3.1 HOW IT IS POSSIBLE?

First, it is helpful to describe the basic manners in which a person may be uploaded into
a computer. Raymond Kurzweil recently provided an interesting paper on this topic. In it, he
describes both invasive and non-invasive techniques. The most promising is the use of very
small robots, or Nano-bots. These robots will be small enough to travel throughout our
circulatory systems. Traveling into the spine and brain, they will be able to monitor the activity
and structure of our central nervous system. They will be able to provide an interface with
computers that is as close as our mind can be while we still reside in our biological form. Nano-
bots could also carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing a complete readout of the
connections between each neuron. They would also record the current state of the brain. This
information, when entered into a computer, could then continue to function like us. All that is
required is a computer with large enough storage space and processing power.

3.2 FUNCTIONING OF HUMAN BRAIN

The brain essentially serves as the body’s information processing centre. It receives
signals from sensory neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems, and in response it
generates and sends new signals that instruct the corresponding parts of the body to move or
react in some way. It also integrates signals received from the body with signals from adjacent
areas of the brain, giving rise to perception and consciousness. The brain weighs around 1,300-
1,400 g i.e. about 3 pounds and constitutes about 2 percent of total body weight. The human
ability to feel, interpret and even see is controlled in computer like calculations, by our nervous
system. The nervous system is quite magical because we can’t see it, but its working through
electric impulses throughout our body. One of the world’s most “intricately organized” electron
mechanisms is the nervous system. Not even engineers have come close to making circuit
boards and computers as precise as the nervous system.

Artificial neural network is an extremely simplified model of the brain. The building
blocks of the neural networks are called the neurons. An artificial neuron is a computational
model inspired in the natural neurons. Natural neurons receive signals through synapses located
on the dendrites or membrane of the neuron.

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

When the signals received are strong enough, surpass a certain threshold, the neuron is
activated and emits a signal though the axon. This signal might be sent to another synapse, and
might activate other neurons. Each neuron receives inputs from many other neurons, changes
its state base on the current input and send one output signal to many other neurons.

The complexity of real neurons is highly abstracted when modelling artificial neurons.
These basically consist of inputs (like synapses), which are multiplied by weights (strength of
the respective signals), and then computed by a mathematical function which determines the
activation of the neuron. Another function computes the output of the artificial neuron. ANNs
combine artificial neurons in order to process information.

The human ability to feel, interpret and even see is controlled, in computer like
calculations, by the magical nervous system. Yes, the nervous system is quite like magic
because we can’t see it, but its working through electric impulses through your body. One of
the world’s most "intricately organized" electron mechanisms is the nervous system. Not even
engineers have come close for making circuit boards and computers as delicate and precise as
the nervous system. To understand this system, one has to know the three simple functions that
it puts into action: Sensory Input, Integration, Motor Output.

1. Sensory Input: When our eyes see something or our hands touch a warm surface, the
sensory cells, also known as Neurons, send a message straight to your brain. This action of
getting information from your surrounding environment is called sensory input because we are
putting things in your brain by way of your senses.

2. Integration: Integration is best known as the interpretation of things we have felt, tasted,
and touched with our sensory cells, also known as neurons, into responses that the body
recognizes. This process is all accomplished in the brain where many neurons work together to
understand the environment.

3. Motor Output: Once our brain has interpreted all that we have learned, either by touching,
tasting, or using any other sense, then our brain sends a message through neurons to effecter
cells, muscle or gland cells, which actually work to perform our requests and act upon the
environment. How we see, hear, feel, smell, and take decision.

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Nose

Once the smell of food has reached your nose, which is lined with hairs, it travels to an
olfactory bulb, a set of sensory nerves. The nerve impulses travel through the olfactory tract,
around, in a circular way, the thalamus, and finally to the smell sensory cortex of our brain,
located between our eye and ear, where it is interpreted to be understood and memorized by
the body.

Eye

Seeing is one of the most pleasing senses of the nervous system. This cherished action
primarily conducted by the lens, which magnifies a seen image, vitreous disc, which bends and
rotates an image against the retina, which translates the image and light by a set of cells. The
retina is at the back of the eye ball where rods and cones structure along with other cells and
tissues covert the image into nerve impulses which are transmitted along the optic nerve to the
brain where it is kept for memory.

Tongue

A set of microscopic buds on the tongue divide everything we eat and drink into four
kinds of taste: bitter, sour, salty, and sweet. These buds have taste pores, which convert the
taste into a nerve impulse and send the impulse to the brain by a sensory nerve fibre. Upon
receiving the message, our brain classifies the different kinds of taste. This is how we can refer
the taste of one kind of food to another.

Ear

Once the sound or sound wave has entered the drum, it goes to a large structure called
the cochlea. In this snail like structure, the sound waves are divided into pitches. The vibrations
of the pitches in the cochlea are measured by the Corti. This organ transmits the vibration
information to a nerve, which sends it to the brain for interpretation and memory.

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TABLE 3.1 COMPARISON BETWEEN NATURAL BRAIN AND ARTIFICIAL

BRAIN

NATURAL BRAIN SIMULATED BRAIN

INPUT INPUT
In the nervous system in our body the neurons In a similar way the artificial nervous system can
are responsible for the message passing. The be created. The scientist has created artificial
body receives the input by sensory cells. This neurons by replacing them with the silicon chip.
sensory cell produces electric impulses which It has also been tested that these neurons can
are received by neurons. The neurons transfer receive the input from the sensory cells. So, the
these electric impulses to the brain. electric impulses from the sensory cells can be
received through these artificial neurons.
INTERPRETATION INTERPRETATION
The electric impulses received by the brain from The interpretation of the electric impulses
neurons are interpreted in the brain. The received by the artificial neuron can be done by
interpretation in the brain is accomplished by means of registers. The different values in these
means of certain states of many neurons. register will represent different states of brain.
OUTPUT OUTPUT
Based on the states of the neurons the brain Similarly based on the states of the register the
sends the electric impulses representing the output signal can be given to the artificial
responses which are further received by sensory neurons in the body which will be received by
cell of our body to respond neurons in the brain the sensory cell.
at that time.
MEMORY MEMORY
There are certain neurons in our brain which It is not impossible to store the data permanently
represent certain states permanently. When by using the secondary memory. In the similar
required, this state is represented by our brain way the required states of the registers can be
and we can remember the past things. To stored permanently and when required this
remember things, we force the neurons to information can be received and used.
represent certain states of the brain permanently
or for any interesting or serious matter this is
happened implicitly.

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PROCESSING PROCESSING
When we take decision, think about something, In the similar way the decision making can be
or make any computation, logical and arithmetic done by the computer by using some stored
computations are done in our neural circuitry. states and the received input and the performing
The past experience stored and the current some arithmetic and logical calculations.
inputs received are used and the states of certain
neurons are changed to give the output.

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CHAPER 4
NEURON AND ITS WORKFLOW

4.1 NEURON
The primary software used by the BBP for neural simulations is a package called
NEURON. This was developed starting in the 1990s by Michael Hines at Yale University and
John Moore at Duke University. It is written in C, C++, and FORTRAN. The software
continues to be under active development and, as of July 2012, is currently at version 7.2. It is
free and open source software, both the code and the binaries are freely available on the
website. Michael Hines and the BBP team collaborated in 2005 to port the package to the
massively parallel Blue Gene supercomputer.

Fig 4.1 Neuron Cell Builder Window

4.2 WORKFLOW OF NEURON

The simulation step involves synthesizing virtual cells using the algorithms that were
found to describe real neurons. The algorithms and parameters are adjusted for the age, species,
and disease stage of the animal being simulated. Every single protein is simulated, and there
are about a billion of these in one cell. First a network skeleton is built from all the different
kinds of synthesized neurons. Then the cells are connected together according to the rules that
have been found experimentally. Finally, the neurons are functionalized and the simulation
brought to life. The patterns of emergent behaviour are viewed with visualization software.

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A basic unit of the cerebral cortex is the cortical column. Each column can be mapped
to one function, e.g. in rats one column is devoted to each whisker. A rat cortical column has
about 10,000 neurons and is about the size of a pinhead. The latest simulations, as of November
2011, contain about 100 columns, 1 million neurons, and 1 billion synapses. A real life rat has
about 100,000 columns in total, and humans have around 2 million. Techniques are being
developed for multiscale simulation whereby active parts of the brain are simulated in great
detail while quiescent parts are not so detailed.

Every two weeks a column model is run. The simulations reproduce observations that
are seen in living neurons. Emergent properties are seen that they require larger and larger
networks. The plan is to build a generalized simulation tool, one that makes it easy to build
circuits. There are also plans to couple the brain simulations to avatars living in a virtual
environment, and eventually also to robots interacting with the real world. The ultimate aim is
to be able to understand and reproduce human consciousness.

4.3 SIMULATION OF NEURON

RTNeuron is the primary application used by the BBP for visualization of neural
simulations. The software was developed internally by the BBP team. It is written in C++ and
OpenGL. RTNeuron is ad-hoc software written specifically for neural simulations, i.e. it is not
generalizable to other types of simulation. RTNeuron takes the output from Hodgkin-Huxley
simulations in NEURON and render them in 3D. This allows researchers to watch as activation
potentials propagate through a neuron and between neurons. The animations can be stopped,
started and zoomed, thus letting researchers interact with the model. The visualizations are
multi-scale that is they can render individual neurons or a whole cortical column. The image
right was rendered in RTNeuron.

Fig 4.2 Visualization of Neuron using RT Neuron

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CHAPTER 5
SOFTWARE & HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

5.1 BLUE BRAIN PROJECT-SDK

The BBP-SDK (Blue Brain Project - Software Development Kit) is a set of software
classes (APIs) that allows researchers to utilize and inspect models and simulations. The SDK
is a C++ library wrapped in Java and Python.

5.2 HARDWARE REQUIRED FOR BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

5.2.1 BLUE GENE/P SUPERCOMPUTER

The primary machine used by the Blue Brain Project is a Blue Gene supercomputer
built by IBM. This is where the name "Blue Brain" originates from. IBM agreed in June 2005
to supply EPFL with a Blue Gene/L as a "technology demonstrator". The IBM press release
did not disclose the terms of the deal. In June 2010 this machine was upgraded to a Blue
Gene/P. The machine is installed on the EPFL campus in Lausanne (Google map) and is
managed by CADMOS (Centre for Advanced Modelling Science).

The computer is used by a number of different research groups, not exclusively by the
Blue Brain Project. In mid-2012 the BBP was consuming about 20% of the compute time. The
brain simulations generally run all day, and one day per week (usually Thursdays). The rest of
the week is used to prepare simulations and to analyse the resulting data. The supercomputer
usage statistics and job history are publicly available online - look for the jobs labelled as "C-
BPP".

5.3 Architecture of Blue Gene

Blue Gene/L is built using system-on-a-chip technology in which all functions of a node
(except for main memory) are integrated onto a single application-specific integrated circuit
(ASIC). This ASIC includes 2 PowerPC 440 cores running at 700 MHz Associated with each
core is a 64-bit “double” floating point unit (FPU) that can operate in single instruction,
multiple data (SIMD) mode. Each (single) FPU can execute up to 2 “multiply-adds” per cycle,
which means that the peak performance of the chip is 8 floating point operations per cycle (4
under normal conditions, with no use of SIMD mode).

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This leads to a peak performance of 5.6 billion floating point operations per second
(gigaflops or GFLOPS) per chip or node, or 2.8 GFLOPS in non- SIMD mode. The two CPUs
(central processing units) can be used in “coprocessor” mode (resulting in one CPU and 512
MB RAM (random access memory) for computation, the other CPU being used for processing
the I/O (input/output) of the main CPU) or in “virtual node” mode (in which both CPUs with
256 MB each are used for computation). So, the aggregate performance of a processor card in
virtual node mode is: 2 x node = 2 x 2.8 GFLOPS = 5.6 GFLOPS, and its peak performance
(optimal use of double FPU) is: 2 x 5.6 GFLOPS = 11.2 GFLOPS. A rack (1,024 nodes = 2,048
CPUs) therefore has 2.8 teraflops or TFLOPS, and a peak of 5.6 TFLOPS.
The Blue Brain Projects Blue Gene is a 4-rack system that has 4,096 nodes, equal to
8,192 CPUs, with a peak performance of 22.4 TFLOPS. A 64-rack machine should provide
180 TFLOPS, or 360 TFLOPS at peak performance.

Fig 5.1 Blue Brain Storage Rack

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Fig 5.2 Blue Brain Storage Hierarchy

Blue Gene/P Technical Specifications

 4,096 quad-core nodes

 Each core is a PowerPC 450, 850 MHz
 Total: 56 teraflops, 16 terabytes of memory
 4 racks, one row, wired as a 16x16x16 3D torus
 1 PB of disk space, GPFS parallel file system
 Operating system: Linux SuSE SLES 10
 Silicon Graphics: A 32-processor Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) system with 300 Gb of
shared memory is used for visualization of results.
 Commodity PC clusters: Clusters of commodity PCs have been used for visualization
tasks with the RTNeuron software.

This machine peaked at 99th fastest supercomputer in the world in November 2009.

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5.4 Modelling the Microcircuit

The scheme shows the minimal essential building blocks required to reconstruct a
neural microcircuit. Microcircuits are composed of neurons and synaptic connections. To
model neurons, the three-dimensional morphology, ion channel composition, and distributions
and electrical properties of the different types of neuron are required, as well as the total
numbers of neurons in the microcircuit and the relative proportions of the different types of
neuron.

Fig. 5.3 Elementary building blocks of Neural Microcircuits

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To model synaptic connections, the physiological and pharmacological properties of

the different types of synapse that connect any two types of neuron are required, in addition to
statistics on which part of the axonal arborisation is used (presynaptic innervation pattern) to
contact which regions of the target neuron (postsynaptic innervations pattern), how many
synapses are involved in forming connections, and the connectivity statistics between any two
types of neuron. Neurons receive inputs from thousands of other neurons, which are intricately
mapped onto different branches of highly complex dendritic trees and require tens of thousands
of compartments to accurately represent them. There is therefore a minimal size of a
microcircuit and a minimal complexity of a neuron’s morphology that can fully sustain a
neuron. A massive increase in computational power is required to make this quantum leap - an
increase that is provided by IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer. By exploiting the computing
power of Blue Gene, the Blue Brain Project1 aims to build accurate models of the mammalian
brain from first principles. The first phase of the project is to build a cellular-level (as opposed
to a genetic- or molecular-level) model of a 2-week-old rat somatosensory neocortex
corresponding to the dimensions of a neocortical column (NCC) as defined by the dendritic
arborisations of the layer 5 pyramidal neurons. The combination of infrared differential
interference microscopy in brain slices and the use of multi-neuron patch clamping allowed the
systematic quantification of the molecular, morphological and electrical properties of the
different neurons and their synaptic pathways in a manner that would allow an accurate
reconstruction of the column.
Over the past 10 years, the laboratory has prepared for this reconstruction by developing
the multi-neuron patch clamp approach, recording from thousands of neocortical neurons and
their synaptic connections, and developing quantitative approaches to allow a complete
numerical breakdown of the elementary building blocks of the NCC. The recordings have
mainly been in the 14-16-day-old rat somatosensory cortex, which is a highly accessible region
on which many researchers have converged following a series of pioneering studies driven by
Bert Sakmann.
Much of the raw data is located in our databases, but a major initiative is underway to
make all these data freely available in a publicly accessible database. The so-called ’blue print’
of the circuit, although not entirely complete, has reached a sufficient level of refinement to
begin the reconstruction at the cellular level. Highly quantitative data are available for rats of
this age, mainly because visualization of the tissue is optimal from a technical point of view.
This age also provides an ideal template because it can serve as a starting point from which to
study maturation and ageing of the NCC.

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As NCCs show a high degree of stereotypy, the region from which the template is built
is not crucial, but a sensory region is preferred because these areas contain a prominent layer 4
with cells specialized to receive input to the neocortex from the thalamus; this will also be
required for later calibration with in vivo experiments. The NCC should not be overly
specialized, because this could make generalization to other neocortical regions difficult, but
areas such as the barrel cortex do offer the advantage of highly controlled in vivo data for
comparison. The mouse might have been the best species to begin with, because it offers a
spectrum of molecular approaches with which to explore the circuit, but mouse neurons are
small, which prevents the detailed dendritic recordings that are important for modelling the
nonlinear properties of the complex dendritic trees of pyramidal cells (75-80% of the neurons).
The image shows the Microcircuit in various stages of reconstruction. Only a small fraction of
reconstructed, three dimensional neurons is shown. Red indicates the dendritic and blue the
axonal arborisations. The columnar structure illustrates the layer definition of the NCC.

Fig 5.4 Reconstructing the Neocortical column

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• The microcircuits (from left to right) for layers 2, 3, 4 and 5.

• A single thick tufted layer 5 pyramidal neuron located within the column.

• One pyramidal neuron in layer 2, a small pyramidal neuron in layer 5 and the large thick
tufted pyramidal neuron in layer

• An image of the NCC, with neurons located in layers 2 to 5.

5.5 Simulating the Microcircuit

Once the microcircuit is built, the exciting work of making the circuit function can
begin. All the 8192 processors of the Blue Gene are pressed into service, in a massively parallel
computation solving the complex mathematical equations that govern the electrical activity in
each neuron when a stimulus is applied. As the electrical impulse travels from neuron to
neuron, the results are communicated via inter processor communication (MPI). Currently, the
time required to simulate the circuit is about two orders of magnitude larger than the actual
biological time simulated. The Blue Brain team is working to streamline the computation so
that the circuit can function in real time - meaning that 1 second of activity can be modelled in
one second.

5.6 Interpreting the Results

Running the Blue Brain simulation generates huge amounts of data. Analyses of
individual neurons must be repeated thousands of times. And analyses dealing with the network
activity must deal with data that easily reaches hundreds of gigabytes per second of simulation.
Using massively parallel computers the data can be analysed where it is created (server-side
analysis for experimental data, online analysis during simulation).
Given the geometric complexity of the column, a visual exploration of the circuit is an
important part of the analysis. Mapping the simulation data onto the morphology is invaluable
for an immediate verification of single cell activity as well as network phenomena. Architects
at EPFL have worked with the Blue Brain developers to design a visualization interface that
translates the Blue Gene data into a 3D visual representation of the column.

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A different supercomputer is used for this computationally intensive task. The

visualization of the neurons’ shapes is a challenging task given the fact that a column of 10,000
neurons rendered in high quality mesh accounts for essentially 1 billion triangles for which
about 100GB of management data is required. Simulation data with a resolution of electrical
compartments for each neuron accounts for another 150GB. As the electrical impulse travels
through the column, neurons light up and change colour as they become electrically active. A
visual interface makes it possible to quickly identify areas of interest that can then be studied
more extensively using further simulations. A visual representation can also be used to compare
the simulation results with experiments that show electrical activity in the brain.

5.7 Whole Brain Simulation

The main limitations for digital computers in the simulation of biological processes are
the extreme temporal and spatial resolution demanded by some biological processes, and the
limitations of the algorithms that are used to model biological processes. If each atomic
collision is simulated, the most powerful supercomputers still take days to simulate a
microsecond of protein folding, so it is, of course, not possible to simulate complex biological
systems at the atomic scale. However, models at higher levels, such as the molecular or cellular
levels, can capture lower-level processes and allow complex large-scale simulations of
biological processes. The Blue Brain Project’s Blue Gene can simulate a NCC of up to 100,000
highly complex neurons at the cellular or as many as 100 million simple neurons (about the
same number of neurons found in a mouse brain). However, simulating neurons embedded in
microcircuits, microcircuits embedded in brain regions, and brain regions embedded in the
whole brain as part of the process of understanding the emergence of complex behaviours of
animals is an inevitable progression in understanding brain function and dysfunction, and the
question is whether whole-brain simulations are at all possible. Computational power needs to
increase about 1-million-fold before we will be able to simulate the human brain, with 100
billion neurons, at the same level of detail as the Blue Column. Algorithmic and simulation
efficiency (which ensure that all possible FLOPS are exploited) could reduce this requirement
by two to three orders of magnitude. Simulating the NCC could also act as a test-bed to refine
algorithms required to simulate brain function, which can be used to produce field
programmable gate array (FPGA)-based chips. FPGAs could increase computational speeds
by as much as two orders of magnitude.

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The FPGAs could, in turn, provide the testing ground for the production of specialized
NEURON solver application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that could further increase
computational speed by another one to two orders of magnitude. It could therefore be possible,
in principle, to simulate the human brain even with current technology. The computer industry
is facing what is known as a discontinuity, with increasing processor speed leading to
unacceptably high power consumption and heat production. This is pushing a qualitatively new
transition in the types of processor to be used in future computers. These advances in
computing should begin to make genetic- and molecular-level simulations possible. Software
applications and data manipulation required to model the brain with biological accuracy.
Experimental results that provide the elementary building blocks of the microcircuit are stored
in a database. Before three-dimensional neurons are modelled electrically, the morphology is
parsed for errors, and for repair of arborisations damaged during slice preparation.
The morphological statistics for a class of neurons are used to clone multiple copies of
neurons to generate the full morphological diversity and the thousands of neurons required in
the simulation. A spectrum of ion channels is inserted, and conductance’s and distributions are
altered to fit the neurons electrical properties according to known statistical distributions, to
capture the range of electrical classes and the uniqueness of each neurons behaviour (model
fitting/electrical capture). A circuit builder is used to place neurons within a three-dimensional
column, to perform axo-dendritic collisions and, using structural and functional statistics of
synaptic connectivity, to convert a fraction of axo-dendritic touches into synapses. The circuit
configuration is read by NEURON, which calls up each modelled neuron and inserts the several
thousand synapses onto appropriate cellular locations. The circuit can be inserted into a brain
region using the brain builder.
An environment builder is used to set up the stimulus and recording conditions.
Neurons are mapped onto processors, with integer numbers of neurons per processor. The
output is visualized, analysed and/or fed into real-time algorithms for feedback stimulation.

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Fig 5.5 Data Manipulation Cascade

5.8 JuQUEEN SUPER COMPUTER

JuQUEEN is an IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer that was installed at the Jülich
Research Centre in Germany in May 2012. It currently performs at 1.6 peta flops and was
ranked the world's 8th fastest supercomputer in June 2012. It's likely that this machine will be
used for BBP simulations starting in 2013, provided funding is granted via the Human Brain
Project. In October 2012 the supercomputer is due to be expanded with additional racks. It is
not known exactly how many racks or what the final processing speed will be. The JuQUEEN
machine is also to be used by the research initiative. This aims to develop a three-dimensional,
realistic model of the human brain.

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Fig 5.6 JuQUEEN Supercomputer in Germany

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CHAPTER 6
NANO-BOTS & APPLICATIONS

6.1 UPLOADING THE HUMAN BRAIN

The uploading is possible by the use of small robots known as the Nano-bots. These
robots are small enough to travel throughout our circulatory system. Traveling into the spine
and brain, they will be able to monitor the activity and structure of our central nervous system.
They will be able to provide an interface with computers that is as close as our mind can be
while we still reside in our biological form. Nano-bots could also carefully scan the structure
of our brain, providing a complete readout of the connections. This information, when entered
into a computer, could then continue to function as us. Thus the data stored in the entire brain
will be uploaded into the computer.

6.2 Merits and Demerits

With the blue brain project, the things can be remembered without any effort, decisions
can be made without the presence of a person. Even after the death of a man his intelligence
can be used. The activity of different animals can be understood. That means by interpretation
of the electric impulses from the brain of the animals, their thinking can be understood easily.
It would allow the deaf to hear via direct nerve stimulation, and also be helpful for many
psychological diseases. Due to blue brain system human beings will become dependent on the
computer systems. Technical knowledge may be misused by hackers; Computer viruses will
pose an increasingly critical threat. The real threat, however, is the fear that people will have
of new technologies. That fear may culminate in a large resistance. Clear evidence of this type
of fear is found today with respect to human cloning.

Detailed, biologically accurate brain simulations offer the opportunity to answer some
fundamental questions about the brain that cannot be addressed with any current experimental
or theoretical approaches. Understanding complexity at present, detailed, accurate brain
simulations are the only approach that could allow us to explain why the brain needs to use
many different ion channels, neurons and synapses, a spectrum of receptors, and complex
dendritic and axonal arborisations.

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6.3 APPLICATIONS

As stated previously, the Blue Brain Project is not only the forefront of advancements
in technology, but in medicine and research as well. Some of which are:

(1) A detailed and accurate data about the Brain and its working will be better understood with
the help of a model and allow fine control of any of the elements and allow a systematic
investigation of their contribution to the emerging behaviour.

(2) Detailed and accurate data for analysing the brain and how information is transmitted within
the neural networks have not yet been learnt.

(3) Using BLUE BRAIN technology will enable us to learn how a new-born neuron is
connected to the neural network and whether it carries a pattern.

(4) Understanding complexity: At present, detailed, accurate brain simulations are the only
approach that can allow us to explain why the brain needs to use many different ion channels,
neurons and synapses, aspect rum of receptors, and complex dendritic and axon alarborizations,
rather than the simplified, uniform types found in many models.

(5) Tracking the emergence of intelligence: This approach offers the possibility to re-trace
the steps taken by a network of neurons in the emergence of electrical states used to embody
representations of the organism and its world.

(6) Simulating disease and developing treatments: Such simulations could be used to test
hypotheses for the pathogenesis of neurological and psychiatric diseases, and to develop and
test new treatment strategies.

(7) Exploring the role of dendrites.

(8) Revealing functional diversity

(9) Providing a circuit design platform: Detailed models could reveal powerful circuit
designs that could be implemented into silicone chips for use as intelligence devices in industry.

(10) Cracking the Neural Code: The Neural Code refers to how the brain builds objects using
electrical patterns. In the same way that the neuron is the elementary cell for computing in the
brain, the NCC is the elementary network for computing in the neocortex. Creating an accurate
replica of the NCC which faithfully reproduces the emergent electrical dynamics of the real

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

microcircuit, is an absolute requirement to revealing how the neocortex processes, stores and
retrieves information.

(11) A Novel Tool for Drug Discovery for Brain Disorders: Understanding the functions of
different elements and pathway s of the NCC will provide a concrete foundation to explore the
cellular and synaptic bases of a wide spectrum of neurological and psychiatric diseases. The
impact of receptor, ion channel, cellular and synaptic deficits could be tested in simulations
and the optimal experimental tests can be determined.

(12) A Global Facility: Software replica of a NCC will allow researchers to explore
hypotheses of brain function and dysfunction accelerating research Simulation runs could
determine which parameters should be used and measured in the experiments. An advanced
2D, 3D and 3D immersive visualization system will allow “imaging” of many aspects of neural
dynamics during processing, storage and retrieval of information. Such imaging experiments
may be impossible in reality or may be prohibitively expensive to perform.

(13) A Foundation for Molecular Modelling of Brain Function: An accurate cellular replica
of the neocortical column will provide the first and essential step to a gradual increase in model
complexity moving towards a molecular level description of the neocortex with biochemical
pathways being simulated.

6.4 LIMITATION

We become dependent upon the computer systems. Others may use their technical
knowledge against us. Computer viruses will pose an increasingly critical threat.

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION & CURRENT RESEARCH WORK

7.1 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we will be able to transfer ourselves into computers at some point. Most
arguments against this outcome are seemingly easy to circumvent. They are either simple
minded, or simply require further time for technology to increase. The only serious threats
raised are also overcome as we note the combination of biological and digital technologies.
While the road ahead is long, already researches have been gaining great insights from their
model.

Using the Blue Gene supercomputers, up to 100 cortical columns, 1 million neurons,
and 1 billion synapses can be simulated at once. This is roughly equivalent to the brain power
of a honey bee. Humans, by contrast, have about 2 million columns in their cortices. Despite
the sheer complexity of such an endeavour, it is predicted that the project will be capable of
this by the year 2023.

7.2 CURRENT RESEARCH WORK

Researchers at Microsoft's Media Presence Lab are developing a "virtual brain," a PC

based database that holds a record of an individual's complete life experience. Called My Life
Bits, the project aims to make this database of human memories searchable in the manner of a
conventional search engine. "By 2047, almost all information will be in cyberspace including
all knowledge and creative works, said one of the project's leaders, Gordon Bell.

According to the new scientist Magazine report Rodrigo Laje and Gabriel Mindlin of
the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina have devised a computer model of a region of the
brain called the RA nucleus which controls muscles in the lungs and vocal folds.

IBM, in partnership with scientists at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de

Lausanne's (EPFL) Brain and Mind Institute will begin simulating the brain's biological
systems and output the data as a working 3-dimensional model that will recreate the high speed
electro-chemical interactions that take place within the brain's interior. These include cognitive
functions such as language, learning, perception and memory in addition to brain malfunction
such as psychiatric disorders like depression and autism.

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 Blue Brain- The Future Technology

From there, the modelling will expand to other regions of the brain and, if successful,
shed light on the relationships between genetic, molecular and cognitive functions of the brain.

Fig 7.1 Pictures of Blue Gene Supercomputer

The model brain can accurately echo the song of a South American sparrow. The bird
sing by forcing air from their lungs past folds of tissue in the voice box. The electric impulses
from the brain that force the lungs had been recorded and when the equivalent impulses were
passed to the computer model of the lungs of the bird it begins to sing like the bird.

Mr. Mindlin told the weekly science magazine he was surprised that simple instructions
from the brain change a constant signal into a complex series of bursts to produce the intricacies
of birdsong.

He plans to add more brain power to his model which might reveal how birds improve
their songs and learn them from other birds.

He hopes it might one day be possible to use similar models to map the neural [brain]
circuitry of animals without distressing lab experiments - just by recording their calls and
movements, the magazine said.

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REFERENCES
1. Markram H., The blue brain project, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(2), 153-160 (2006)

2. Kaviya Ms K., The Blue Brain (2014)

3. Schwartz Jeffrey M. and Sharon Begley, The mind and the brain. Harper Collins (2009)

4. Reconstructing the Heart of Mammalian Intelligence, Henry Markram’s lecture, March 4

(2008)

5. Henry Markram builds a brain in supercomputer, TED conference July (2009)

6. Indian start up to help copy your brain in computers, Silicon India (2009)

7. Özkural E., What is it like to be a brain simulation? Artificial General Intelligence. Springer
Berlin Heidelberg, 232-241(2012)

8. Nagal D. and Sharma S., An Overview On Discovery of Reality-Blue Brain, (2013)

9. http://bluebrainproject.epfl.ch. (2015)

10. http://research.ibm.com/bluebrain. (2015)

11. http://thebeutifulbrain.com/2010/02/bluebrain-filmpreview (2015)

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