Our Brains are Constructed Randomly (Origins)

by dhw, Friday, September 21, 2012, 20:03 (4444 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: The key factor is that we can model the brain's construction via a random process. You can get what you want out of it, but if we can predict whether two neurons will be connected by a random roll of the dice--and we can now--that means that something as complex as the brain *can* be constructed via random processes.-As is so often the case, different readers get different messages from the same text. As I understood it, the project does not tell us that the brain can be constructed via random processes. Its focus is on how the brain functions (perhaps with a view to deliberately creating a working model).-Quote: The goal of the BBP is to integrate knowledge from all the specialised branches of neuroscience, to derive from it the fundamental principles that govern brain structure and function, and ultimately, to reconstruct the brains of different species ... including the human brain ... in silico.-Quote: The results provide important insights into the basic principles that govern the wiring of the nervous system, throwing light on how robust cortical circuits are constructed from highly diverse populations of neurons ... an essential step towards understanding how the brain functions. They also underscore the value of the BBP's constructivist approach. "Although systematically integrating data across a wide range of scales is slow and painstaking, it allows us to derive fundamental principles of brain structure and hence function," explains Hill.-At the risk of being a megabore, let me put in the pennyworth that constantly seems to be left out of these discussions. We all know that the brain functions by way of millions of connections. Neuroscientists are busily investigating how this happens. No-one denies that it does happen. If we use the analogy of a machine, this particular machine works, but is so complex that it may require decades of research to find out how. But that is not the ultimate mystery. The ultimate mystery is what operates the machine. When "I" decide to search my memory, to solve a puzzle, to decide between A and B, what is the force that sets the connecting parts of the machine in motion and then chooses which areas to bring into play?