Neuroscientists have managed to create a digital version of part of a rat brain. The Blue Brain Project is an arm of the international research consortium the Human Brain Project, which focuses on simulating the brain. The digital reconstruction, put together by 82 scientists from around the world, is about the equivalent of a cubic millimeter of brain tissue in a rat, simulating 30,000 neurons and 40 million connecting synapses.
A cubic millimeter may not sound too impressive, but the scientists were able to get this small slice of digital brain to act like a real biological neocortex. The virtual tissue showed similar electrical behavior to an actual rat brain.
via Mental Floss
Image: MARKRAM ET AL., CELL (2015)
