Artificial human brain 'ready within 10 years'

A scientist who has reverse-engineered the brains of animals has predicted he will be able to build an artificial human cortex within 10 years.

Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, said he had already simulated elements of a rat's brain.

"It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years," he told the TED science conference in Oxford, Britain. "And if we do succeed, we will send a hologram to TED to talk."

The BBC reported Professor Markram spent 15 years picking apart the structure of the neocortex in order to digitally build one from scratch.

His project can now model "tens of thousands" of neurons into an artificial neocortical column. The project then uses a supercomputer to bring it to life.

"You excite the system and it actually creates its own representation" of objects, he said. Ultimately, the aim would be to extract that representation so that researchers could see directly how a brain perceives the world.

The Blue Brain project began in 2005 and aims to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain from laboratory data.

But it also has other practical uses, such as creating "models" of animals to cut down the need for live experiments.

"We cannot keep on doing animal experiments forever," said Professor Markram. "There are two billion people on the planet affected by mental disorder," he told the audience, and such advances could help with their treatment.

- STAFF REPORTER