Computer simulation of the brain

Question

I've been hunting on the net periodically for several months for an answer to this with no joy. Grateful if anyone can shed any light...

I'm interested in work that's been done on simulating the human brain. I could, of course, mean many things by that. Here's what I do mean, followed by what I don't mean:

 

I AM interested in simulations of how we think and feel. I'm not talking about down to the level of neurons, but more simulation of the larger modules that are involved. For example, one might simulate the 'anger' module as a service that measures the degree one has been disrespected (in some system of representation) and outputs an appropriate measure of anger (again in some system of representation).

 

I am NOT interested in projects like the Blue Brain etc, where accurate models of neuron clusters are being built. I'm interested in models operating at much higher levels of abstraction, on the level of emotional modules, cognitive reasoning systems, etc.

I'm also NOT interested in AI projects that take as their inspiration or paradigm human mechanisms, like Belief-Desire-Intention systems, but which are not actually trying to replicate human behavior. Interesting though these systems are, I'm not interested in making effective systems, but effectively modeling human thought and emotion.

I've been searching far and wide, but all I've found are papers from the 60s like this one:  Computer Simulation of Human Interaction in Small Groups

It almost appears to me as if psychologists were excited by simulating brains when computers were first available, but now don't do it at all?

Can anyone point me in the direction of more recent research/efforts, if there have been any?

Answer 1

There's an algorithm to simulate our brains. Too bad no computer can run it. Scientists recently created an algorithm capable of performing a complete human brain simulation. The Brain Simulation Platform (BSP) is a tool for internet-accessible tools, which allows investigations that are not possible in the laboratory. They are applying Blue Brain techniques to other brain regions, such as the cerebellum, hippocampus, and basal ganglia.

You might be interested in work on Affective Computing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affective_computing

http://affect.media.mit.edu/

If you want to learn about Brain Simulation Projects then visit this Artificial Intelligence Master's Training Course.