New book provides step-by-step guide to build computer model of the human brain

Jun 26 2013

It sounds like science fiction, but a new book by a University of Waterloo professor is actually a step-by-step guide, teaching readers how they can build their own computer model of the human brain.

How To Build a Brain by Professor Chris Eliasmith details how and he and his team built Spaun, the world's largest functional brain model. The book gives hands-on tutorials that even newcomers to the field can undertake, quickly allowing them to construct a wide range of biologically realistic brain models.

"This book is aimed at anyone wishing to understand how large numbers of neurons form brain circuits that result in behavior, " said Professor Eliasmith, director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at Waterloo, Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience, and professor in Waterloo's Department of Philosophy and Department of Systems Design Engineering. "The semantic, syntactical, control, learning, and memory models covered by the book and tutorials are the components that we used to create Spaun."

The Spaun project has received international acclaim ever since Eliasmith's findings were published in the journal Science in November. Spaun, which stands for Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network, consists of 2.5 million simulated neurons. The model is able to shift between diverse tasks - from copying human handwriting to finding hidden patterns in a list of numbers - using a detailed neural architecture.

Professor Eliasmith is one of the field's top researchers, and his book gives readers deep and practical insight into the leading ideas on how brains work. His project was inspired by brain research but is among the first to address cognitive phenomena, helping researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence build theoretical models that are able to help explain the brain's flexibility, robustness and ability to adapt.

"The brain is a fascinating and inspiring structure. We still have much to learn about how it really works, and what makes a mind," said Professor Eliasmith. "Spaun is the first model of its kind. By sharing how we built it, we hope that others join us in exploring the brain and help us unlock more of its secrets."

How to Build a Brain provides detailed hands-on tutorials instructing readers how to build a model of the brain using Nengo, the free, open source software written by Professor Eliasmith's lab.

Source: University of Waterloo