A supercomputer has simulated the activity of 31,000 virtual brain cells (pictured) in a section of rat brain the size of a grain of sand.

Credit: Blue Brain Project

Henry Markram at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his team built their model based on experimental measurements of rat brain slices. The simulation represents roughly 37 million synapses, or neuronal connections, in the brain region that receives sensory information from the whiskers and other parts of the body. Using the model, the team simulated rat whisker movement and saw similar neuronal responses to those observed in rat experiments.

The model could be manipulated in ways that are difficult to do experimentally, providing insights into how individual cells contribute to the functions of neuronal networks, the authors say.

Cell 163, 456–492 (2015)