The Human Brain Builds Structures in 11 Dimensions, Discover Scientists The Human Brain Builds Structures in 11 Dimensions, Discover Scientists
Science, Wellbeing

The Human Brain Builds Structures in 11 Dimensions, Discover Scientists

Paul Ratner
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Groundbreaking research finds that the human brain creates multi-dimensional neural structures.

The brain continues to surprise us with its magnificent complexity. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By “dimensions,” they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms. Still, the researchers “found a world that we had never imagined,” said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, which made the discovery.

The goal of the Blue Brain Project, which is based in Switzerland, is to digitally create a “biologically detailed” simulation of the human brain. By creating digital brains with an “unprecedented” level of biological information, the scientists aim to advance our understanding of the incredibly intricate human brain, which has about 86 billion neurons.

To get a clearer vision of how such an immense network operates to form our thoughts and actions, the scientists employed supercomputers and a peculiar branch of math. The team based its current research on the digital model of the neocortex that it finished in 2015. They probed the way this digital neocortex responded by using the mathematical system of algebraic topology. It allowed them to determine that our brain constantly creates very intricate multi-dimensional geometrical shapes and spaces that look like “sandcastles”.

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Without using algebraic topology, a branch of mathematics that describes systems with any number of dimensions, visualizing the multi-dimensional network was impossible. 

Utilizing the novel mathematical approach, researchers were able to see the high degree of organization in what previously seemed like “chaotic” patterns of neurons.

“Algebraic topology is like a telescope and microscope at the same time. It can zoom into networks to find hidden structures—the trees in the forest—and see the empty spaces—the clearings—all at the same time,” stated the study’s author Kathryn Hess. 

The scientists first carried out tests on the virtual brain tissue they created and then confirmed the results by doing the same experiments on real brain tissue from rats.

When stimulated, virtual neurons would form a clique, with each neuron connected to another in such a way that a specific geometric object would be formed. A large number of neurons would add more dimensions, which in some cases went up to 11. The structures would organize around a high-dimensional hole the researchers called a “cavity”. After the brain processed the information, the clique and cavity vanished.

The researcher Ran Levi detailed how this process is working:

“The appearance of high-dimensional cavities when the brain is processing information means that the neurons in the network react to stimuli in an extremely organized manner. It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materializes out of the sand and then disintegrates.”

The significance of the discovery lies in allowing us greater understanding into “one of the fundamental mysteries of neuroscience – the link between the structure of the brain and how it processes information,” elaborated Kathryn Hess in an interview with Newsweek. 

The scientists look to use algebraic topography to study the role of “plasticity” which is the process of strengthening and weakening of neural connections when stimulated – a key component in how our brains learn. They see further application of their findings in studying human intelligence and formation of memories. 

The research was published in the Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.

This article was originally published on 14th June 2017 at Big Think.

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Agnieszka Fiedorowicz

Even if your brain has already lived through the phase of the great synaptic pruning (meaning that you’re an adult), do not neglect playtime. As children play, they learn something new about life, while the adults… well, see for yourselves.

Our new yellow armchair came in a huge cardboard box. Next thing I knew, the kids were pushing the empty box through the door to their room. First, they debated half the day as to what they should do with it. They drew their ideas on paper and argued. Then they grabbed the paints, some crepe paper, glue and scissors. And all of a sudden, we had become the owners of a small space station; on board, our offspring were preparing the conquest of Mars. Then the box was a horse stable. And then a rather squarish Death Star, right after the premiere of the final Star Wars film. After a number of conversions, the box finally gave in when one of the walls rotted through. The children protested a bit, but they finally allowed me to throw the remains in the rubbish. None of the other toys bought in abundance by their grandparents, friends or by ourselves had been able to preoccupy them for so long and so effectively.

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