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A Review on Application and Challenges of Blue Brain Project International Conference on "Computing: Communication, Network and Security”( IC3NS – 2018) ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052 A Review on Application and Challenges of Blue Brain Project Dr. Puneet Kumar1, Mili Sharma2, Tulika Tewari 3 1, 2, 3 Dept of CSE 1, 2, 3 Mody University of Science and Technology Abstract- Man is said to be the most wonderful creation of the Switzerland. The director of this institute, Henry Markram is God. But, has anyone wondered what makes him different heading this project along with the co- directors Sean Hill and from all the other species. It is the human brain. This brain Felix Schurmann. The fundamental motive behind this makes the man capable of doing all the activities which no ambitious initiative is the simulation of mammalian brain with other species is capable of. It would come as a surprise that biologically high level of accuracy, and eventually, study the researchers today are working to preserve the human brain steps involved in inception of biological level of intelligence even after its death. IBM is working on a project named Blue with the aid of computing power of Blue Gene/L Brain which is said to be a human brain in a supercomputer. supercomputer which is a prototype of IBM [3]. The main approach is to have an actual brain inside 1.2 Working a virtual brain which could work, respond, contemplate and take decisions just like any other normal brain is capable of The functioning of blue brain basically involves doing. Idea is to create electrochemical interactions that the process of human brain uploading. The uploading is occur inside a normal brain thereby eliminating any chances done with the use of small robots called Nanobots. These of brain disorders like autism, etc. Also, the main aim is to nanobots are so small that they can travel throughout our preserve the human brain after death so that the data, circulatory system. Thus, these robots can monitor the central intelligence, personalities, feelings and memories of that nervous system by moving through the spine and brain and person should not be lost [1]. while still residing in the biological form, they act as an interface with the computer. In this way, nanobots will provide Keywords- neurons, nanobots, computational modeling, a complete readout of the connection by scanning the entire supercomputers structure of brain. This information regarding the connection obtained, when input in the computer, could then continue to I. INTRODUCTION function like a human being. Hence, the data stored in the human brain will be uploaded in the computer. Today we are able to witness the development in the society because of the intelligence. But what if we want to use The virtual brain is built using three main steps: the intelligence of a man even after his death? Answer to that problem is having a virtual brain. Blue Brain project is an 1. Data acquisition attempt to create a virtual brain through reverse engineering. 2. Simulation By this we will be able to scan the natural brain and use the 3. Visualization knowledge for further development of the society. The project involves studying slices of living brain tissue using Data acquisition- In this step, the 3D Neurological microscopes and patch clamp electrodes. Data is collected Morphologies are reconstructed by taking slices of the human about all the many different neuron types. This data is used to brain. The data acquisition step is done on Windows build biologically realistic models of neurons and networks of workstation running Neurolucida software package. In order neurons in the cerebral cortex. The simulations are carried out to study the electrophysiological behavior of neurons, a 12- on a Blue Gene supercomputer built by IBM [2]. patch clamp was invented for this project. 1.1 History Simulation- In this step, a software called NEURON is used which is uses various algorithms to study the cells. This The Blue Brain was launched on July 1, 2005 by the software is written in C, C++ and FORTRAN. Different name “Blue Brain Project 1” by IBM and the Brain and Mind algorithms are defined for simulation of different age and Institute in Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, breed of the human beings. Blue Brain Project Software Page | 41 www.ijsart.com International Conference on "Computing: Communication, Network and Security”( IC3NS – 2018) ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052 Development Kit or BBP- SDK is then used to collect the data be able to study the "imaging" of many aspects of neural from the nanobots. dynamics during processing, storage and retrieval of information. With the advent of computing technology, it Visualization- For visualization of the results, the RT Neuron seems that a mammalian brain cannot be simulated with application is used. This application is written in C++ and entire cellular and synaptic complexity. In order to openGL. Also, the animations can be stopped, started and facilitate reconstruction of subcortical brain regions, NCC zoomed [4]. architecture’s knowledge can be transferred and thus, constructing a foundation for complete brain simulation. Using these developments, an experiment was performed using a South American sparrow. A computer A precise cellular clone of the neocortical column model of the bird’s lungs was developed. Just as the bird sings will provide a gradual surge in model complexity stimulating forcibly through the folds of tissues, these impulses were towards a description of molecular level of the neocortex with transferred to the model which started singing like the bird. simulation of biochemical pathways. The neocortical column These European neuroscience project researchers conducted is placed right at the interface between complex cognitive an experiment and published their first major result i.e. a functions and genes. This level of simulation will become a digital imitation of circuitry in a sand grain-sized chunk of rat reality with the most advanced phase of Blue Gene brain. The work models some 31,000 virtual brain cells development [3]. connected by roughly 37 million synapses. III. ADVANCING THE BRAIN SCIENCES II. APPLICATIONS This remarkable project by Henry Markram proves to This project has tremendous applications. The most be a next level of research that being done in the field of important application is to gather and test data of up to 100 neuroscience. The technology that is adapted by this project is years. This can be achieved by providing a working model really very advanced. In the local microcircuits resting state, into which the past 100 years knowledge about the the persistence of neuronal firing is a big question in the microstructure and workings of the neocortical column can be project. But with reference to the perturbations of the neuronal gathered and tested. The Blue Column’s job will be to access connectivity, these resting states are invariant and stable. The all the research relating to the functioning and structure of the data synthesis process of computing gives the outcome on its neocortex while producing a virtual library to explore in 3D own and also tells about the gnome of cortical connectivity. the microarchitecture of the neocortex. Crackling of neural Whether cortical neurons will be connected or not under the code is also one of the applications. How the object is built by influence of oppositions of structure in the 3D space of the the brain with the help of electrical patterns is known as the cortical column is one such instance. A detailed study of Neural Code. The NCC is the primary network used for fundamental parameters of neurons and their morphological computing in the neocortex. To know how the neocortex electric features is being studied under the Blue Brain Project stores the information as well as process and reveals it there is at the most fundamental level of any species also known as a a need to create a correct replica of the NCC that produces single cell level. A very good approach known as the electric dynamics of the real microcircuit. transcriptomics of a single cell is developed to reduce the lo w accuracy of single cell transcriptome sequencing due to fewer One of the most Nobel uses of this blue brain project number of the transcript molecules. Lone cells taken from is in drug discovery for human brain disorders. If we samples of homogenised brain from various areas are comprehend the functioning of dissimilar elements of the veneered in 96 well plates as single cells. Then we lyse them NCC, it will be very helpful in exploring the cellular and and alter the mRNAs with the help of terminal addition of a synaptic bases of an array of psychiatric as well as hexamer which is unique to each well. With the use of unique neurological diseases. We can test the influence of ion sequences of hexamer, following the process of reverse channel, receptor, synaptic and cellular deficits in simulations. transcription, we pool, sequence and then sort the cDNAs into The optimal experimental tests can also be determined. batches. These are the references for the subsequent steps. We identify the soma of cells under the microscope; determine the A replica of a NCC will allow researchers to explore electric morphology for these cells which are”blown out” and hypothesis of brain function and dysfunction accelerating then sequence the transcripts. Then we compare the profile of research. Simulation can be used to determine the parameters transcriptome with the standard library and then determine and can be used and measured in the experiments. Having an associate the gCode of these transcriptomic cells with its advanced 2D and 3D immersive visualization system we will electric morphology. This approach permits the project to link Page | 42 www.ijsart.com International Conference on "Computing: Communication, Network and Security”( IC3NS – 2018) ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052 the project evaluation and Human Brain project 8 gene To maintain top notch research and to assure the expressions.
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