Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

Blue Brain Technology: An Overview

Supriya Khatoniar
#
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Dibrugarh University, Asaam, India
supriyakhatoniar11@gmail.com

Abstract— Human brain is the most valuable creation of nature. A man is called intelligent because of the brain. But we lose the
knowledge of a brain when the body is destroyed after death. Blue brain is the name of the world’s first virtual brain, basically an
artificial brain. Today scientists are in research to create an artificial brain that can think, response, process, memorize and take
decision. It is possible to achieve this by using supercomputers, with a huge amount of storage capacity, processing power and an
interface between the human brain and this artificial one. The data stored in the natural brain can be transmitted into the computer
through this interface Thus the knowledge, intelligence, emotions and memories of anyone can be preserved and used forever for
various situations, like to continue the pending work, to decide on something based on his/her area of expertise etc even after the death
of the person. The Blue Brain Project (BPP) makes use of the “Blue Gene” supercomputer developed by IBM to carry out simulations.
The project was founded and directed by Professor Henry Markram at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
in Lausanne, Switzerland in May 2005. The goal of the Blue Brain Project is to build biologically detailed digital reconstructions and
simulations of the rodent (i.e. mouse, rat etc), and ultimately the human brain.

Keywords— Human brain, Virtual brain, Blue brain, Neuron, Supercomputer, Nanobots

I. INTRODUCTION

The brain is the reason behind the intelligence of human being. Human brain is complex than any other circuitry in the world
and is very difficult to understand its complexity. It translates the information delivered by the impulses, which then enables the
person to react. But lose the knowledge of a brain when the body is destroyed after the death of the man, which might have been
used for the development of the human society. Today scientists are carrying out research to create an artificial brain that can
think like the natural brain, take decisions based on the past experience, and respond as the natural brain without the presence of a
human body. Blue brain is known as of the world’s first virtual brain which is a machine that can function as human brain [1].
The Blue Brain Project (BPP) makes use of the ―Blue Gene‖ supercomputer developed by IBM and BPP is the first
comprehensive experiment to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, so as to understand brain function and dysfunction through
detailed supercomputer-based model. The aim of the project is to build comprehensive digital reconstructions of the brain which
can be used to study the nature of the brain and is under process [2]. This, in turn, helps in understanding how human beings
process emotions, thoughts, and give us deeper insight into the decision making power of the human brain.

II. VIRTUAL BRAIN

A virtual brain is an artificial brain which can think like the natural brain, take decisions based on the past experiences, and
respond as the natural brain can. It is possible to achieve this by using supercomputers, with a huge amount of storage capacity,
processing power and an interface between the human brain and this artificial one. The data stored in the natural brain can be
transmitted into the computer through this interface. So knowledge and intelligence of anyone can be preserved and used forever,
even after the death of the person [3]
Today scientists are carrying out research to create an artificial brain that can think, respond, take decisions and store
information. The main aim is to upload a human brain into the computer, so that it can think, and make decisions without the
presence of a human body. After death of the person, this virtual brain can act as him. So, even after the death of a person, we will
not lose the knowledge, intelligence, emotions, personalities, feelings and memories of a person and this can be used for various
situations like to continue the pending work, to decide on something based on his/her area of expertise etc [4].
.
III. NEED OF VIRTUAL BRAIN

Today we are developed because of our intelligence. Intelligence is the inborn quality that cannot be created. Some people
who have this quality, they can think up to such an extent while the other cannot reach. Human society is always needed of such
intelligence and such an intelligent brain to have with but is lost along with the body after the death. The solution to it is the
virtual brain where the brain and intelligence will alive even after the death. People often face difficulties in remembering some
things such as people’s names, their birthdays, and the spellings of words, proper grammar, important dates, history facts, and
etcetera. A virtual brain can take away the extra stress that we all face to remember things and thus it is a perfect technical
solution to a very common human problem [5], [6].
.

Volume XII, Issue VII, July/2020 Page No:827

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

IV. FUNCTION OF NATURAL BRAIN

The nervous system is quite like a magic because we can’t see it, but it is working through electric impulses through our body.
Because of it, human ability to feel, interpret, decision and even see is controlled, in computer-like calculations. The human brain
is a complex system consisting of recursive connectors. Not even engineers can make the circuit boards and computers as delicate
and precise as the nervous system. It is more complex than any circuitry in the world. The human brain is a multi-level system
with 100 billion neurons (nerve cells) and 100 trillion synapses [7]. A neuron is a cell designed to transmit information to other
nerve cells, muscle, or gland cells whereas synapses help neurons to communicate with each other.

A. Sensory input:
When the eyes see something or our hands touch a warm surface, the sensory cells, also known as Neurons, send a message
straight to the brain. This action of getting information from the surrounding environment is called sensory input because with the
help of senses, things are sent to the brain [8].

B. Integration:
Integration is best known as the interpretation of things like taste, touch, and sense which is possible because of our sensory
cells, known as neurons. Billions of neurons work together to understand the changes around us [8].

C. Integration:
Once the brain understands the change, either by touching, tasting or via any other medium, then the brain sends a message
through neurons to effectors cells, muscles or gland cells, which actually work to perform the requests and act upon the
environment [8].

V. VIRTUAL BRAIN SIMULATION

The following table (TABLE I) compares the working procedures of the natural and simulated brain. This is a possible
proposed solution. As per EPFL, development is still in progress [9].

TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN NATURAL BRAIN AND STIMULATED BRAIN

NATURAL BRAIN STIMULATED BRAIN

In the nervous system of our body, the neurons

Here neurons can be replaced by a
are responsible for transmitting information. The
silicon chip. So, through these artificial
body receives the input by the sensory cells. Electric
INPUT neurons the electric impulses from the
impulses produced by these sensory cells are
sensory cells can be received and send to a
received by the neurons, through which these electric
supercomputer for the interpretation.
impulses are transferred to the brain.
The interpretation of the can be done by
The interpretation in brain is done by various
means of a various set of registers from the
INTERPRETATION states of neuron from the electric impulses received
electric impulses received by the artificial
by the neuron in the brain.
neuron.
Based on different states of the neurons the brain
Similarly, based on different states of
sends the electric impulses representing the
the register, the output signal can be given
OUTPUT responses. These responses are further received by a
to the artificial neurons in the body which
sensory cell of our body to respond to neurons in the
will be received by the sensory cell.
brain at that time.

Certain neurons in our brain represent some states

for all time. As per requirement, this state is
In the similar way the required states of
represented by our brain and we can remember the
the registers can be stored permanently and
MEMORY past things. To remember some things we force the
when required this information can be
neurons to represent certain states of the brain
retrieved and used.
permanently or for any interesting or serious matter,
this happens implicitly.

In decision making and some calculation, logical In a similar way, the decision making
and arithmetic calculations are done in our neural can be done by the computer by
PROCESSING circuitry and are stored as states. Based on the new performing arithmetic and logical
requests, states of certain neurons are changed to calculations on the stored states and the
give the output. new inputs.

Volume XII, Issue VII, July/2020 Page No:828

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945
VI. DATA UPLOAD FROM BRAIN TO COMPUTER

The uploading of data from brain to computer is possible by the use of small robots known as the Nanobots. These robots are
as small as to travel throughout our circulatory system. By traveling into the spine and brain, Nanobots will be able to monitor the
activity and structure of our central nervous system as well as will be able to provide an interface with computers. They also could
carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing a complete readout of the connections. When this information entered into a
computer, it could then continue to function as us. Thus, the entire data in the brain will be uploaded into the computer [10].

Fig.1 Nanobots

VII. BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

Blue Brain is known as the world’s first virtual brain. The blue brain project (BPP) makes use of the Blue Gene supercomputer
developed by IBM to carry out simulations. Hence the project is named the ―Blue Brain‖. The project was founded by Henry
Markram at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland in May 2005. EPFL is a research
institute that specializes in natural sciences and engineering [11].
Hardware and software requirements:
• A super computer.
• Memory with a very large storing capacity.
• Processor with a very high processing power (22.8 TFLOPS peak processing speed)
• A very wide network.
• An algorithm or program to convert the electric impulses from the brain to input signal, which is to be received by the
computer, and vice versa.
• Very powerful Nanobots to provide the interface between the natural brain and the computer

Fig. 2 Blue Gene Supercomputer built by IBM

Volume XII, Issue VII, July/2020 Page No:829

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

VIII. STEPS FOR BUILDING A BLUE BRAIN

To build a Blue brain following steps are involved:

A. Data Collection:
It involves collecting individual portions of brain, placing them under a microscope, and gauging the shape and electrical
behavior of the individual neurons. The neurons are captured by their shape, electrophysiological activity, location within the
cerebral cortex and their population density. This method of cataloguing and studying is very familiar worldwide. These
observations are then translated into precise algorithms which describe the process, function, and positioning methods of neurons.
Then, the algorithms are used to produce biologically-real looking virtual neurons ready for simulation phase [5], [8].

B. Data Simulation:
It involves two major aspects [5], [8]:
• Simulation speed: Simulation speed Simulations of one cortical column (more than 10,100 neurons) run about two hundred
times slower than real time. It takes about five minutes to complete one second of stimulated time. The simulations display
unevenly line scaling. Presently biological soundness is trying to find rather than presentation. After understanding
biologically significant factors for a given effect it might be suitable to crop constituents that don't contribute in order to
advance performance.
• Simulation workflow: Here virtual cells are made using the algorithms, written to define and describe real neurons, is the
major seek of this step. Algorithms and constraints are modified according to the age, species, and disease stage of the
animal being simulated. There are about a billion of these in a single cell and each one of the protein is simulated

The Blue Brain Project - Software Development Kit is a set of application programming interfaces that allows the researchers
to use and audit prototypes and simulations. It is a C++ library wrapped in Java and Python. The primary software used by the
Blue Brain Project - SDK for neural simulation is NEURON.

C. Visualisation of Results:
RT Neuron: It is the main application that Blue Brain Project uses for visualization of neural simulations. The BBP team
developed this software internally. It is coded using C++ and OpenGL. RT Neuron is ad-hoc software made specifically for neural
simulations, i.e. it can’t generalize to other kinds of simulation. RT Neuron takes the output from Hodgkin-Huxley simulations as
input in NEURON and delivers them in 3D. This allows the programmers and researchers to view as activation potentials transmit
through or between neurons. The animations can be paused, stopped, started and zoomed, hence allowing the researchers to
interact with the model. The visualizations are multi-scale (they can render individual neurons or a whole cortical module) [5], [8].

The blue brain model can accurately echo the song of a South American sparrow. This bird sing by forcing air from their lungs
past folds of tissue in the voice box. The electric impulses from the brain of the bird that force the lungs had been recorded and
when the equivalent impulses were passed to the computer model of the lungs of the bird it begins to sing like the bird.

IX. BLUE BRAIN RESEARCH CENTER

IBM, in partnership with scientists at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) – a research institute,
specialized in natural sciences and engineering, will begin simulating the brain’s biological systems and output the data as a
working three dimensional model that will recreate the high-speed electrochemical interactions that take place within the brain’s
interior. EPFL makes use of the supercomputer Blue Gene/P built by IBM. (IBM made an agreement in June 2005 to supply
EPFL with a Blue Gene/L as a "technology demonstrator", which was upgraded to a Blue Gene/P in June 2010). The machine is
located in EPFL campus, Lausanne and is managed by CADMOS (Center for Advanced Modeling Science) [12]

Fig. 3 Blue Gene Simulation of electrical activity in a ―virtual brain slice‖ formed from seven unitary digital reconstructions of neocortical microcircuits.
Source: EPFL/BlueBrainProject

Volume XII, Issue VII, July/2020 Page No:830

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

X. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BLUE BRAIN

A. Advantages:
• Blue brain is an approach to store and utilize human intelligence and information present in the mind even after human
demise.
• It is an important move towards self -decision making by the computer or machine that holds a Blue brain.
• An intelligent machine can do very significant functions such as business analysis, attending conferences, reporting, etc
consistently.
• It also can be used as an interface between human and animal minds, which can be done by interpretation of electric
impulse or signals from their brain. The Blue Brain Project has become successful in rat experiment as well as some
other animals and this is a sign of success.
• It provides a good solution towards human disability like a deaf can get the information via direct nerve stimulation and
also a remedy for many psychological diseases.
• We could make use of the information of the brain that was uploaded into the computer and use it to provide a solution to
mental disorder [6], [13].

B. Disadvantages:
 f Increases the dependency on computer systems.
 Fear of misuse that is found with respect to human cloning.
 A large amount of power is needed and very costly way to regain the memory back.
 Since it an approach to make machines intelligent and thoughtful it increases the risk of machines conducting war against
human [6], [13].

XI. CONCLUSIONS

The main aim of Blue Brain Project is to build a software or template which could show and discover many existing
aspects of the brain circuit, memory capability and how memories are lost. The blue brain project, if implemented
successfully, would indeed change many things around us and it will boost the area of research and technology. Certain
research and development take decades or even centuries to complete, so the knowledge and efforts of a scientist can be
preserved and used further in his absence. At the same time, it is not an easy task to replicate the convoluted brain system into
a computer. It may take several years to decades to accomplish this.

REFERENCES

[1] Blue Brain-The Magic of Man Meet Gidwani, Anand Bhagwani, Nikhil Rohra International conference of IEEE 2015.
[2] The Blue brain project, Hil, sean: Markram Henry, International conference of IEEE 2008.
[3] Blue Brain-The Future Generation by SivaKumar Avula in IJAIEM Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2013.
[4] http://research.ibm.com/bluebrain.
[5] Kavya Priya G.V and Monika Sruthi.J, ―A Review on Blue Brain Technology‖, International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume
3(6), ISSN: 2394-9333
[6] C.Sunitha, V.Sivaranjani, ―Blue Brain Technology‖, IJEDR 2018 | Volume 6, Issue 4 | ISSN: 2321-9939
[7] https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/supercomputing/0/steps/24069
[8] Suryanshu Bakshi, Shravan Das, Rishabh Mishra, ―A Research Study On Blue Brain‖, International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer
Engineering & Technology (IJARCET) Volume 06, Issue 05, May 2017, ISSN: 2278 – 1323
[9] Ravi Bandakkanavar , June 20, 2018, https://krazytech.com/technical-papers/blue-brain
[10] Henry Markram, "The Blue Brain Project", Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7:153-160, 2006 February. PMID 16429124.
[11] https://www.epfl.ch/research/domains/bluebrain/
[12] Henry Mark ram, "The Blue Brain Project", Nature Reviews Neuroscience, http://thebeutifulbrain.com/2010/02/bluebrain-film-preview/
[13] Dr. Ambuj Kumar Agarwal1, Shruti Shukla, Virtual Brain Bringing Blue Brain Advance Technology to Life, 4th International Conference on System
Modeling & Advancement in Research Trends (SMART) College of Computing Sciences and Information Technology (CCSIT) ,Teerthanker
Mahaveer University , Moradabad
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Brain_Project
[15] https://www.electronicsforu.com/technology-trends/blue-brain-worlds-first-virtual-brain

Volume XII, Issue VII, July/2020 Page No:831