Brain In Humans Is Able To Create Structures Of As Many As 11 Dimensions
Neuroscientists have revealed that they have discovered a world that they could never have imagined after using a classic branch of mathematics in a way never before to look into the structure of the human brain. They found that the human brain has multi-dimensional geometrical structures that are able to operate up to 11 dimensions.
Human Brain Is The Most Complex Structure Known To Man
The world is generally thought of in a 3D perspective and while this does sound tricky, the results of a brand new study might just be the next big step in scientists understanding how the human brain really works. The human brain is, of course, one of the most complex of structures that is known.
A team of researchers from Switzerland has produced the latest brain model in a project entitled the Blue Brain Project. They have been devoted to making a reconstruction of the brain using a supercomputer. The team made use of mathematics with the name of algebraic topology and this describes properties of spaces along with the object, with no regards as to how they change their shape.
Neurons Collect In Cliques
The scientists found that neurons collected in groups and they connect into cliques, a number of neurons in a clique leads to the size as an object that is high-dimensional and geometric. Henry Markham, the lead researcher from EPFL Institute in Switzerland said that they have come across a world that they could not have imagined.
He went on to say that there are tens of millions objects residing in even the smallest speck of the human brain and up to as many as seven dimensions. He said that in some networks they had found structures with as many as 11 dimensions in them.
Markham said that it was not how one would think of spatial dimensions as the Universe has three spatial dimensions and a time dimension. He talked about how researchers had been looking into the neuron cliques to find out just how connected they really are. He said that networks that they have analyzed in groups of nodes, which have all been connected to each other, are called cliques. The amount of neurons that are found in a clique will determine the size or dimension.
Human Brain Has 86 Billion Neurons
It has been estimated that the human brain has around 86 billion neurons and they have multiple connections from each of the cell webbing and go in all possible directions to form a cellular network that is vast and this is what makes people capable of having thoughts.
He went on to say that as there is such a large number of connections for them to work with it is no wonder that they do not have a better understanding of just how the neural network of the brain operates. Markham said that they have been able to build a mathematical framework that does take them closer to having a digital brain model one day.
Neocortex Is The Most Evolved Part Of The Brain
To undertake the mathematical tests the researchers came up with the Blue Brain Project, a detailed model of the neocortex and this was published in 2015. Scientists have said that the neocortex is the part of the brain that is most evolved and one that is involved in functions of higher order, such as sensory perception and cognition.
After the team had come up with the framework, they tested it on virtual stimuli and the results have also been confirmed on the brains of rats. The researchers said that the mathematical tools, the algebraic topology, allows them to find details about the neural network close-up at the level of individual neurons along with at a grander scale of the structure of the brain as a whole.
When the two levels are connected the researchers found high dimensional geometric structures in the brain that had been formed by the many cliques, or neurons that were tightly connected, and the cavities that were between them.
The team said in the study that they found a high number and variety of cavities and high-dimensional directed cliques, which they had never seen before in neural networks either artificially or biologically.
Algebraic Topology: Telescope And Microscope
Mathematician Kathryn Hess said that the algebraic topology is both a microscope and telescope at the same time. She said that it was able to zoom into networks and find structures that are hidden along with empty spaces and other things all at the same time.
She went on to say that the cavities and clearings were critically important for the functioning of the brain. The team stimulated the virtual brain tissue and they found that the neurons had reacted in a manner that was very organized. It was said that the progression of the activity in the human brain looked like a sandcastle in multi-dimensions that had come out of the sand and then broken down or disintegrated.
The findings offer a picture that is tantalizing about how information is processed by the brain. However, the researchers have said that right now it is not clear just what makes the cavities and cliques form in the specific ways they do. The researchers said that more work will be needed if they are to determine how the multi-dimensional geometric shapes are formed by the neurons and how they correlate with the complexity of cognitive tasks.
Quantum entanglement was once considered to be something of a fringe theory in the world of physics with Einstein famously referring to it disparagingly as ‘spooky action at a distance’.
But attitudes towards quantum entanglement have changed a great deal since the time of Einstein. Not only are scientists now convinced that it is real but they have also managed to monitor its effects over larger distances than ever before.
Quantum entanglement is a strange phenomenon which is not yet fully understood by the scientific community. Essentially quantum entanglement is when two particles interact with one another and continue to have an effect on each other’s state no matter how far apart they are separated in distance.
Over the years, scientists have found that they can use quantum entanglement to make two particles respond to one another’s movements over a long distance and now they are keen to understand just how this process works and what applications it could have, both theoretically and practically.
Until very recently, physicists interested in the effects of quantum entanglement have only managed to distribute particles over a distance of 100 kilometres along optical fibres. While they are sure that the particles will remain entangled no matter what the distance it is difficult to keep track of the particles over such vast distances as they are very likely to be lost in the fibres.
Juan Yin of the Science and Technology University of China in Shanghai assembled a team with the intention of solving this problem. The team used Micius for their experiments. Micius is the world’s first quantum enabled satellite which is capable of transmitting entangled photons across vast distances.
The team used a beam splitter to transmit the entangled photons across a distance of 1200 kilometres which were tracked by ground stations scattered across China. According to Yin, the photons remained entangled as they crossed this vast distance. In a research paper discussing the study he wrote, "The result again confirms the nonlocal feature of entanglement and excludes the models of reality that rest on the notions of locality and realism.”
The success of the study means that scientists investigating the quantum entanglement phenomenon are likely to begin to use lasers rather than optical fibres in their experiments in the future. The approach of the Chinese team is considered to be superior to using optical fibres as most of the transmission path is contained within a vacuum so there is much less chance of the particles becoming lost and untraceable. "Even if perfect optical fibres were produced in the future, our satellite-based method would still be four to eight orders of magnitude more efficient, "the team explained.
It is hoped that greater advances in understanding quantum entanglement will open up a myriad of applications for the phenomenon in the future. Physicists are already playing with the idea that entanglement could be used to create communications networks and secure payment systems in the near future.
Replies