A South African neuroscientist plans to build the world’s first digital brain in the hopes of trying to discover new information on mental disorders. Professor Henry Markram said:

What we are developing is a new foundation, a new instrument – a telescope – that will allow one to look deep into the brain, offering a more systematical approach to any disease.

Markram has been given a grant of R12 billion from the European union for the project. The brain is being created with the help of a supercomputer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The aim is to map out 100 billion neurons connected by 100 000 billion synapses of the human brain, all on a single computer system.

Markram believes the project will shed light on finding new ways to treat autism, an issue that hits close to home for Markram, who has an autistic son. The project is also set to break new ground with disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease.

The project is expected to take 10 years to complete with 200 researchers working on the project.

[Source: IOL Scitech]