The Tangled Bank

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is teaming up with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to create a neural map of 60,000 cortical neurons. Through this study, they hope to further our understanding of the paths that neuronal communication takes, but I’m afraid that this study will not be as helpful as they expect. The area of the neocortical column being studied is 2 mm square, and comes from studies of multiple laboratory rats. Though this is a small area, the information needing to be processed in this study will be sufficient to fill 2,400 DVDs. This is a project of tremendous scope, but I feel that the information gained will only be applicable in very general senses. We are deriving all of our information from rats, and while mammalian nervous systems are very similar, neuronal positions might differ (within 2 mm) or neurons might be utilized in different ways. I think that the insight gained will most likely deal with the way that the layers of the neocortex communicate. Specifics involving precise cellular positions will not be of particular use, but building on the idea that different cell types are involved in different communication processes might be applicable to other nervous systems. The article describing this study was titled, “IBM: the computer brain,” and was found in Technology Review (Talbot, 2005). My biggest question about this project… What is involved in building a 5D model of circuitry?