History
In 2006, the project made its first model of a neocortical column with simplified neurons.[4] In November 2007, it completed an initial model of the rat neocortical column. This marked the end of the first phase, delivering a data-driven process for creating, validating, and researching the neocortical column.[5][4][6]
Neocortical columns are considered by some researchers to be the smallest functional units of the neocortex,[7][8] and they are thought to be responsible for higher functions such as conscious thought. In humans, each column is about 2 mm (0.079 in) in length, has a diameter of 0.5 mm (0.020 in) and contains about 60,000 neurons. Rat neocortical columns are very similar in structure but contain only 10,000 neurons and 108 synapses.
In 2009, Henry Markram claimed that a "detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years".[9] He conceived the Human Brain Project, to which the Blue Brain Project contributed,[4] and which became funded in 2013 by the European Union with up to $1.3 billion.[10]
In 2015, the project simulated part of a rat brain with 30,000 neurons.[11] Also in 2015, scientists at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed a quantitative model of the previously unknown relationship between the neurons and the astrocytes. This model describes the energy management of the brain through the function of the neuro-glial vascular unit (NGV). The additional layer of neuron and glial cells is being added to Blue Brain Project models to improve functionality of the system.[12]
In 2017, Blue Brain Project discovered that neural cliques connected to one another in up to eleven dimensions. The project's director suggested that the difficulty of understanding the brain is partly because the mathematics usually applied for studying neural networks cannot detect that many dimensions. The Blue Brain Project was able to model these networks using algebraic topology.[13]
In 2018, Blue Brain Project released its first digital 3D brain cell atlas[14] which, according to ScienceDaily, is like "going from hand-drawn maps to Google Earth", providing information about major cell types, numbers, and positions in 737 regions of the brain.[15]
In 2019, Idan Segev, one of the computational neuroscientists working on the Blue Brain Project, gave a talk titled: "Brain in the computer: what did I learn from simulating the brain." In his talk, he mentioned that the whole cortex for the mouse brain was complete and virtual EEG experiments would begin soon. He also mentioned that the model had become too heavy on the supercomputers they were using at the time, and that they were consequently exploring methods in which every neuron could be represented as an artificial neural network.[16]
In 2022, scientists at the Blue Brain Project used algebraic topology to create an algorithm, Topological Neuronal Synthesis, that generates a large number of unique cells using only a few examples, synthesizing millions of unique neuronal morphologies. This allows them to replicate both healthy and diseased states of the brain. In a paper Kenari et al. were able to digitally synthesize dendritic morphologies from the mouse brain using this algorithm. They mapped entire brain regions from just a few reference cells. Since it is open source, this will enable the modelling of brain diseases and eventually, the algorithm could lead to digital twins of brains.[17]
Software
The Blue Brain Project has developed a number of software to reconstruct and to simulate the mouse brain. All software tools mentioned below are open source software and available for everyone on GitHub.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
Blue Brain Nexus
Blue Brain Nexus[24][25][26] is a data integration platform which uses a knowledge graph to enable users to search, deposit, and organise data. It stands on the FAIR data principles to provide flexible data management solutions beyond neuroscience studies.
BluePyOpt
BluePyOpt[27] is a tool that is used to build electrical models of single neurons. For this, it uses evolutionary algorithms to constrain the parameters to experimental electrophysiological data. Attempts to reconstruct single neurons using BluePyOpt are reported by Rosanna Migliore,[28] and Stefano Masori.[29]
CoreNEURON
CoreNEURON[30] is a supplemental tool to NEURON, which allows large scale simulation by boosting memory usage and computational speed.
NeuroMorphoVis
NeuroMorphoVis[31] is a visualisation tool for morphologies of neurons.
SONATA
SONATA[32] is a joint effort between Blue Brain Project and Allen Institute for Brain Science, to develop a standard for data format, which realises a multiple platform working environment with greater computational memory and efficiency.
