Modelling the brain

and The Swiss-based Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) are taking brain research to new heights.

Over the next two years, scientists from both organizations will work together using the computational capacity of IBM's eServer Blue Gene supercomputer to create a detailed model of the circuitry in the neocortex - the largest and most complex part of the human brain. Scientists hope to eventually build an accurate, computer-based model of the entire brain.

Relatively little is actually known about how the brain works. Using the digital model scientists will run computer-based simulations of the brain at the molecular level, shedding light on internal processes such as thought, perception and memory. Scientists also hope to understand more about how and why certain microcircuits in the brain malfunction - thought to be the cause of psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.

"Modelling the brain at the cellular level is a massive undertaking because of the hundreds of thousands of parameters that need to be taken into account," said Henry Markram, the EPFL professor heading up the project.