Photo: Barry Isralewitz et al., 2025
A new virtual brain created by a supercomputer will help scientists study how this vital organ functions. The supercomputer has produced the most realistic and detailed simulation of a mouse brain available today, Science Alert reports. This is particularly valuable because studying a living brain is challenging due to limited accessibility, and the simulation provides researchers with a practical alternative.
The development, created by a team from the Allen Institute (USA) and the University of Electro-Communications (Japan), could allow for more detailed modeling and study of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The model is a full simulation of the mouse cerebral cortex. While it is not as large or complex as the human brain, which contains billions of neurons, similarities between human and rodent brains make it a useful research tool.
The virtual brain contains nine million neurons and 26 billion synapses. The simulation includes 86 interconnected regions and can process quadrillions of calculations per second. For comparison, a real mouse brain has about 70 million neurons and is roughly the size of an almond.
The complexity of the simulation allows researchers to observe how cognition, consciousness, and disease propagate through the brain. It functions as a three-dimensional moving map, showing the activation and connections of individual neurons.
According to scientists, it can be used to test hypotheses about the onset of seizures or how brain waves contribute to attention, without the need for repeated invasive physical scans.
The necessary computational power was provided by the Japanese supercomputer Fugaku, which used existing databases and cell graphics to build the model. The team also developed new software to more efficiently process brain activity and minimize unnecessary calculations.
