This is your brain…on silicon

IBM’s Blue Brain project is a two-year venture for scientists from
Big Blue and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne to create a
detailed model of the human brain. This effort represents the greatest
investigation yet into how the human brain works, achieved by creating
a detailed model of the neocortex using the Blue Gene supercomputer.
The model, which aims to investigate concepts such as thought, memory
and perception, should help researchers to find ways to combat
emotional disorders such as depression and autism, among others.

Scientists believe that once they create an accurate, functioning model
of the neocortex, which houses 85% of the brain’s function, they can
begin to model other parts of the brain, until they have the entire
brain mapped.