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What technology do we have right now to map the connections of the brain? Is there anything that currently exists with enough granularity to take a snapshot of our neurons and their connections?

edit: thanks for the replies, did some research found this TED talk that visualizes the problem pretty well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0

⬐ yigitdemirag

fMRI I suppose. As far as I know, even if you have all neuron mapping of human brain, you could not achieve basic intelligence as brain constantly alter with these connections and their strengths. Even if you know all the connections, neuron firing types and representation of information over the network would create a big question for you.

⬐ mentos

Yea if you think about it short term memory is necessary for the movement of consciousness from state to state. Otherwise it'd be like flipping a toaster on.

⬐ bertil

The MIT & Harvard medical school and CS had a joint project called something like the Brain initiative to collect that combining results from:

- inferences of neuron interactions from electronic wiring individual neurons in mice brains;

- fMRI and tFMI (a mathematical extension that associates area that are activated one after the other) on live humans;

- scanning ultra-thin slices (volunteer human brain donor) and using that for an neuron-to-synapse complete map of at least one brain. Both the slicing technology and the AI to re-combine images into not just a 3D model, but a complete connectron are pretty mind-blowing achievements.

If you combine that to the possible impact in AI and medical learnings on how things like degenerescence, you can imagine why it ends up feeling far more ambitious than the Manhattan project.

There's a great Penn & Teller "Bullshit" segment about Cryonics (mildly NSFW; it's Penn & Teller): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHEWKkLzALQ#t=20m2s

Is it possible? Certainly - the Wood Frog evolved to freeze itself every winter[1] and successfully unthaw itself. It floods its blood with sugars so it doesn't form ice crystals, solving the problem of tissue destruction, then unthaws in the Spring from the outside in and restarts its biological systems.

How does modern cryonics solve this problem? Antifreeze. The fluid that poisons you if it enters your system[2].

For you to be revived, then, we'd have to figure out:

* how to unthaw your body in a way that won't destroy essential parts of it

* how to cure you of Ethylene glycol poisoning

* how to cure you of the thing you died from

* how to bring you back to life

Perhaps a clever solution will be thought up that will just do a quick scan of your connectome[3] and upload it to a simulation. But why would anyone go through the trouble? Presumably this would be many years in the future. Would anyone even care enough in an overpopulated future-Earth to start bringing back their ancestors? When's the last time you called your grandparents?

The bottom line is that if you're truly desperate for an "afterlife" (or, perhaps more accurately, extra-life), cryonics is probably your best bet presently. That bet, however, is rationally just an incredible waste of money that would more effectively prolong your effect on the world if instead it was used to support the people and ideals you believed in when you were alive.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjr3A_kfspM

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0

I really like this conception of brains working as internally competing and cooperating ferral units. I'll have to give it some more thought in the morning. I do have an entreaty for you though:

In this era of high throughput computing, elegant biotechnology, and the coming of the BRAIN initiative from the national level, I believe the best way to attack the problems of mind/brain right now is hard work and the scientific method. We need more data and we need to analyze it.

We're hiring developers for eyewire.org - a game to map the brain by crowd sourcing/gamifying the analysis of electron micrographs of stained retinal slices from mice. We're developing the tools to map the connectome. For real. The PI for my lab, Dr. Sebastian Seung, is mentioned in this article, and I love working with him. There are other absolutely incredible people working here too that will blow your mind.

Send an email to support at eyewire dot org if you want in or email me personally (see link in my profile) if you want more details. (I won't be able to get back to you instantly - I'm totally swamped, but if you're hired, based on my experiences so far, it'll be worth the wait).

Here are two fun explanatory videos from TED/TEDx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0 - Sebastian Seung talking connectomes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gKt8iT08Zc - Amy Robinson talking EyeWire

Thanks for reading. I hope this post isn't too far out of our community norms - I don't see too many (large) job postings in the comments, but I felt like this article is the perfect place to find someone willing and able to provide much needed help (I'm the only web developer / aspiring neuroscientist there right now). :) If I'm taking up too much space, let me know and I'll condense it.

⬐ jnbiche

Looks like an amazing project. I think crowdsourcing is vastly underutilized for tasks like this.

May I make a suggestion re: the web site? In the home/registration page, it would be very helpful to link to some kind of description of the project, even if it's just one paragraph. Better yet, include that short description on the page itself.

As things stand now, I go to the sign-up page, but if I want to have any idea what the project involves before I sign up, I have to leave your site and go google the project (fortunately, there's an excellent Wikipedia article about the project).

Best of luck with your project and finding some good job candidates. If I were in a position to relocate, I'd apply for the job.

⬐ SapphireSun

Haha, this is something hotly debated in the lab as we speak. We just started A/B testing descriptions on Friday. :) Thanks for the kind words!