Replica brain possible – but funding stands in way

Creating a replication of the human brain is a feasible short term goal according to neuroscientist Professor Henry Markram of the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland. He believes that financial support is the only constraint to building a ‘replica’ brain within the next 10 years.

Professor Markram said: “I absolutely believe it is technically and biologically possible. The only uncertainty is financial. It is an extremely expensive project and not all is yet secured.”

Although the brain is extremely complex, there are still a finite number of synapses, neurons, proteins and genes. Professor Markram believes today’s technology could provide the capability to reverse engineer the brain. One of the most exciting challenges is to understand how electrical-magnetic-chemical patterns in brains are converted into a perception of reality. Fully understanding this process would be a step towards explaining consciousness, one of the great unanswered questions in modern science.

Professor Markram has already been proving his hypothesis – he has linked up hundreds of thousands of small pieces of data that his lab has collected over the past 15 years like a microcircuit of the brain. He said: “When we first switched it on it already started to display some interesting properties. But this is just the beginning because we know now that it is possible to build it. As we progress, we are learning more about design secrets of our brains which were unimaginable before.” His group were surprised to find that there are simple design principles that connect the billions of neurons in the brain.

A replica brain could reveal the causes of brain diseases that affect around two billion people. It would also have the potential to replace many animal experiments that take place every year for brain research.

By Leila Sattary