New Imaging Method Reveals Brain Connections

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety. A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. It is at these synapses that an electrical impulse traveling along one neuron is relayed to another, either enhancing or inhibiting the likelihood that the second nerve will fire an impulse of its own. One neuron may make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons, said Stephen Smith, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of a paper describing the study, to be published Nov. 18 in Neuron."

Re:Only a matter of time

[gmuslera]

We are already using the 100% of our brain. For something as expensive to maintain as the brain, having 90% of unused area is an evolutionary disadvantage. Maybe we could give it a better use, for some value of better, but is not unused right now.

Re:Incredible Complexity

[urusan]

The good news is that it shows how much we can still improve microprocessor technology. Perhaps Moore's Law (or something similar) will keep up for quite some time into the future?

Re:Only a matter of time

[gmuslera]

You will end with a situation similar to Star Trek's teleporters. You are killing yourself and hopefully create something elsewhere that believes (for some definition of "believes", maybe behaves is a better approach for that) that is you. And you won't be exactly like before, as with teleporters, to have extra confidence.

In Caprica they were starting to explore the meaning of such thing and then the show got cancelled.

Re:Only a matter of time

[the_humeister]

Depends on the definition of "use." If you mean firing all at once, then yes, epileptics have that issue. However, just because a neuron is not firing does not mean that it is not doing something and/or receiving signals. BTW neurons don't just receive signals from other neurons, they receive signals from other tissue in the form of hormones.

Re:Only a matter of time

[Thing 1]

Trust me, you don't want to use "the other 90%" of your brain for consciousness. The full quote is likely to have been something like, "we only use 10% of our brain for consciousness, the rest runs background processes". You do not want to have to consciously keep track of keeping your blood pumping, regulating just the right amount of hormones in each area of the body, heat movement, cellular growth, gamete development, etc. Specialization, even within the body and brain, is important.

Re:Only a matter of time

[dogmatixpsych]

Further, all neurons have a resting firing rate. They might only fire once per second or so but they are never "still". Most of the neurons in our brain serve as inhibitory regulators for other neurons. If this wasn't the case, we'd have too much activity.