Brain Research using Supercomputer
Copyright 1996 The Australian Associated Press.
SYDNEY, Aug 5 AAP - Scientists hope a major Australian research project
using a supercomputer to emulate the human brain will lead to better
treatment of mental illness.
Evian Gordon, the head of Westmead Hospital's cognitive neuroscience
unit, said the project was unique because it combined computer modelling
of the brain with results of brain tests.
Dr Gordon will present a paper on the Darwin Brain Modelling and
Testing Project at tomorrow's Brain and Behaviour forum at the University
of Technology in Sydney.
The three-year "Darwin" project consists of a realistic simulation on
the supercomputer of the brain's overall electrical activity and the
testing of the model with human brain data received in Sydney.
"Integration of the modelling and testing efforts, as in this project,
will advance our understanding of the dynamics of the whole brain
function, including the patterns of instability," Dr Gordon said.
"It will provide new ways to measure the effects of medication on the
brain as a system, in neuropsychiatric disorders."
The project involves 25 researchers from Sydney's Westmead Hospital and
the Mental Health Research Institute in Melbourne. The Melbourne-based
supercomputer is a vital to the project.
Dr Gordon said the Darwin project was an encouraging example of a
collaborative effort across disciplines that was leading to a better
understanding of the brain as a whole system.
"This is potentially a powerful kind of model," he said.
"These kinds of collaborative projects are the way forward in the
gigantic efforts being made to understand the brain."
Organisers of tomorrow's forum, the eleventh in the Horizons of Science
series, said the meeting would challenge ideas on how people think about
the brain as well as provide original research by Australian scientists.
Other topics on the agenda include measuring anxiety, Alzheimer's and
inflammatory drugs, stuttering, alcoholism, and the brains' of insects.
AAP jw/srw/mih