Part of the hippocampus and neocortex with fluorescence stained cell nuclei (blue) and glia cells (yellow). Photo: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Gabor Nyiri, IEM HAS (CC-BY-NC-SA)

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Further Information to the Human Brain Project:

www.humanbrainproject.eu

Presskit with documents, images and videos

hermann article "A brain-like Computer" (Feb. 2013)

Helmholtz-Press Release "Helmholtz-Zentren erhalten EU-Förderung für Milliardenprojekt zur Simulation des menschlichen Gehirns", 28 January 2013 (in German)

Further Information to the Brain Activity Map:

"Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain", New York Times, 17 February 2013

"A scientist explains how the Brain Activity Map will cure mental diseases in the future", NBC Latino, 22 February 2013

Publication: "The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics", Neuron, Year 74, Issue 6, 970-974, 21 Juni 2012

Brain Research: EU vs US

Both aim at an improved understanding of the brain in its entirety: the European "Human Brain Project" and the planned US-American "Brain Activity Map" project. Our overview illustrates how both approaches very well augment each other.

Purpose

Human Brain Project

• Detailed simulation of the human brain with all its component parts ranging from gene activity to the interaction of entire groups of cells
• EU funded joint project involving some 80 international research institutions
• Costs: 1.19 billion Euro over 10 years

Brain Activity Map

• Mapping the human brain: development of a kind of "microscope" for visualising brain activity – neural cell by neural cell
• Planned US-American research project involving all national research institutions
• Anticipated costs: 3 billion US-Dollar (approx. 2.3 billion Euro) over 10 years

Approach

Human Brain Project

• Simulation of hitherto not yet researched processes on the basis of already collected neurological and clinical data

Brain Activity Map

• Measurement of activity of individual neural cells by way of nano-probes and DNA analyses

Milestones

Human Brain Project

• Parts of the rat brain have been simulated already – the simulation of the human brain begins now

Brain Activity Map

• 5 years: mapping of all neural cells of small animals (worms, mice); 10 years: mapping of the cerebral cortex and its approx. 10 million neural cells; 15 years: starting to reconstruct human brain activity

Goals

Human Brain Project und Brain Activity Map

• Improved understanding of the brain's functions and its diseases, improved treatment methods, further development of computer and robotic technology

Franziska Roeder

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