Scientists have discovered that the human brain is capable of building structures in up to 11 dimensions. The human brain can think and create in up to 11 dimensions, according to a study that was recently published in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.
The Blue Brain Project claims that the dimensions are not
understood in the way that most of us would typically think of a dimension. As
part of the Blue Brain Project, researchers learned fascinating new information
on the complexity of the human brain.
We discovered a world that we had never envisioned,
according to neuroscientist Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project
and professor at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. Even in a tiny portion of
the brain, there are tens of millions of these things spread across seven
dimensions. We even discovered structures in certain networks with up to eleven
dimensions.
Once scientists researched the human brain, they discovered
that conventional mathematical viewpoints were useless and inefficient.
The image attempts to capture a multi-dimensional universe
of buildings and locations—something that cannot be seen. On the left, you can
see a computerized reproduction of a segment of the neocortex, the most
developed part of the brain. Constructions with dimensions ranging from one to
seven and beyond are illustrated on the right using a number of forms of varied
sizes and geometries. A group of multi-dimensional holes or cavities are
represented by the central "black-hole". Researchers from the Blue
Brain Project contend that clusters of neurons connected into such holes
constitute the crucial link between brain structure and function in a recent
work published in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. This image is from
the Blue Brain Project.
The high-dimensional structures and spaces that we can now
plainly perceive cannot be detected by the mathematics that is often used to
research networks, according to Markram.
Instead, researchers chose to study algebraic topology. In
the field of mathematics known as algebraic topology, topological spaces are
investigated using methods from abstract algebra. Scientists from the Blue
Brain Project collaborated with mathematicians Kathryn Hess from EPFL and Ran
Levi from Aberdeen University to use this methodology in their most recent
research.
Algebraic topology, according to Professor Hess, "is
like a telescope and microscope at the same time. It has the ability to zoom in
on networks to spot hidden features like trees in a forest and simultaneously
observe open areas like clearings.
The scientists discovered that cliques of neurons, which are
brain cells that transmit impulses, build the structures of the brain. A new
entity is created as a result of the specific connections that every neuron in
the group has with each other. The 'dimension' of an object grows as the
clique's number of neurons does.
The architecture of a virtual brain that the researchers
created with the aid of computers was modeled using algebraic topography. They
then conducted trials on actual brain tissue to corroborate their findings. The
scientists found that when more inputs were added to the virtual brain, cliques
with progressively HIGHER dimensions began to develop. Investigators also found
gaps between the cliques.
According to Ran Levi of Aberdeen University, the brain
processes information when high-dimensional holes are visible. This indicates
that the network's neurons respond to inputs in a highly ordered way. It
appears as though the brain builds and then destroys a tower out of various
three-dimensional building pieces, starting with rods (1D), then moving on to
planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then moving on to more sophisticated
geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The way that activity moves through the brain is
like watching a multi-dimensional sandcastle emerge from the sand and then fall
apart.
The most recent knowledge on the human brain offers
never-before-seen insights into how the brain functions. However, according to
scientists, it is still unknown how the cliques and cavities form in such a
peculiar way.
Where does the brain'store' memories? is one of
neuroscience's greatest mysteries, and the new research may one day shed light
on it.
Reference: Peer reviewed research