How does the Blue Brain Project (and NEURON software) work?

Question

From Wikipedia:

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. [...] Using a Blue Gene supercomputer running Michael Hines's NEURON software, the simulation does not consist simply of an artificial neural network but involves a biologically realistic model of neurons.

"If we build it correctly it should speak and have intelligence and behave very much as a human does."

My question is how the software works internally. If it "involves a biologically realistic model of neurons", how is that different from a neural network, and why can't neural networks simulate a biological brain well while this project would be able to? And, how is NEURON software used in the simulation?

Answer 1

The human brain is highly complicated to study, it can memorize millions of things, it can make decisions according to the situation, it can give a real-time response, hence, a standard level machine cannot meet compatible features to that of a human brain. There comes the relevance of the supercomputer. Blue Gene is the supercomputer used by IBM for this purpose. This is the fundamental machine used for the Blue brain concept. The Blue brain project aims to interface the real brain with a computer. For that a computer with a huge memory and processing power is necessary. Nanorobots or nanobots are used to interface the real brain with the computer (Blue gene). Nanobots are small enough to reside inside the body and travel through the circulatory system. The nanobots will be used to travel through the brain and spine. This will study the activity of the nervous system as well as its structure, it will also analyze the structure of the brain. The nanobots will continuously monitor the brain and give updates to the computer which will be stored in the registers. The purpose of the nanobots is to study each and everything related to the brain, it includes the interconnection of neurons.

You can refer to the following link for Neuroinformatics and The Blue Brain Project: https://www.technologynetworks.com/informatics/articles/neuroinformatics-and-the-blue-brain-project-part-1-295850better understanding of

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