Perspective Article
Large-scale modeling – a tool for conquering the complexity of the brain
1 KTH, Sweden
2 Stockholm University, Sweden
Is there any hope of achieving a thorough understanding of higher functions such as perception, memory, thought and emotion or is the stunning complexity of the brain a barrier which will limit such efforts for the foreseeable future? In this perspective we discuss methods to handle complexity, approaches to model building, and point to detailed large-scale models as a new contribution to the toolbox of the computational neuroscientist. We elucidate some aspects which distinguishes large-scale models and some of the technological challenges which they entail.
Keywords: modeling methodology, large-scale model, simulation, parallel computing, brain, cortex, computational neuroscience, subsampling
Copyright: © 2008 Djurfeldt, Ekeberg and Lansner. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Mikael Djurfeldt, CBN/CSC KTH, S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. e-mail: mikael@djurfeldt.com
Citation: Djurfeldt M , Ekeberg Ö and Lansner A (2008) Large-scale modeling – a tool for conquering the complexity of the brain. Front. Neuroinform. 2:1. doi:10.3389/neuro.11.001.2008
Received: 24 January 2008; paper pending published: 30 January 2008; accepted: 22 February 2008; published online: 02 April 2008.
Edited by:
Erik De Schutter, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan; University of Antwerp, Belgium
Reviewed by:
Upinder S. Bhalla, National Center for Biological Sciences, India
Markus Diesmann, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan
Markus Diesmann, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan
*Correspondence: Mikael Djurfeldt, CBN/CSC KTH, S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. e-mail: mikael@djurfeldt.com


