I was wondering how memory is stored in a brain and also how that memory is read and written. Im doing a degree wherein we learn how the RAM in a comp works. A pulse is sent through the RAM every RAM clock cycle. Depending on the value u pass in, different things happen, this also depends on the type of RAM. RAM is made of millions of Flip Flops which accept two inputs, thorugh combinations of these inputs, u can read, write and clear the FlipFlop. Could the brain work like this, since the body is constantly producing electricity, pulses could be sent around the brain making the values held in groups of neurons stay the same. I was also wondering how we know that when we feel something touch our arm on a certain place, we know its there, rather than a place close by. Well it must all be done from learning through experience. Supposing that every nerve ending on our body sends back a different strength signal to the brain, then within in the brain every neuron has a slightly different resistance to the signal, then as the signal moves through the neurons it would lose strength. Maybe if the neurons did something different when the strength of the signal fell below a certain threshhold an action could take place. I know this is vague but im just trying to get a thought accross to you all. I'm really interested in emulating how the brain works and how we make decisions, since every living things actions can be broken down into routines, the only way i can think of that a situation could bre branched off into different directions would be changes or differences in the strength of the incoming signal. So if the incoming signal is too strong, pass it on and reduce its value, else deal with it. regards ace

The brain is actually fairly digital... neurons in the brain fire to a high value ('1') when sufficient stimulating inputs are applied to them or then sit doing nothing ('0').

The only reason that we cannot generate a brain that simulates human intelligence is lack of sufficent computing power. Using a neural network we would need to model billions of cells interlinked with tens of thousands of connections per cell... plus we would need to train the network to respond appropriately in a given situation - and there is no reason to think that the training would be any faster than teaching a human child...

The main problem is that the brain is a parallel processing structure - something that is almost impossible to simulate on a normal CPU without sacrificing speed... Some super-computers have been developed in Japan to allow rapid modelling on neural networks in parallel, but they are rather expensive for game AI applications...

A few points:
1. The human brain is in fact both digital and analog. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of neurons that look and work differently.

2. How we perceive temporal and spatial information, such as the touch of a hand, is imperfectly understood. What we know is that a part of the human brain, approximately the part at the top of your head, is laid out in such a manner that each small area represents an area of the human body. Exactly how that translates to us "knowing" where that is is currently not understood.

3. There is a similar concept like the one you describe. Look up "neural networks". It's been around for 20 or so years and is continually being researched and used around the world.

4. Someone mentioned doing some operations in parallell. This is currently not possible on existing computers, but if we had, say, a few billion parallell general processors, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to accurately model the brain.

Summary: Take a look at "neural networks" and take a look at what is there today.

I don't claim to be an expert, but aren't computer signals transmitted faster than brain signals?

Electrical currents pass through individual neurons, which release neurotransmitters. These are chemicals that travel to the nearest neuron to start a signal in THAT neuron, so it releases chemicals to tell another neurorn to fire, etc.

Meanwhile, a computer doesn't use any sort of chemical transmission. It's purely electrical, meaning signals travel at nearly the speed of light.

So doesn't the increase in transmision speed contribute to faster development times in computer neural networks than biological networks?

-Gauvir_Mucca

Quote:Original post by Gauvir_Mucca
I don't claim to be an expert, but aren't computer signals transmitted faster than brain signals?

Electrical currents pass through individual neurons, which release neurotransmitters. These are chemicals that travel to the nearest neuron to start a signal in THAT neuron, so it releases chemicals to tell another neurorn to fire, etc.

Meanwhile, a computer doesn't use any sort of chemical transmission. It's purely electrical, meaning signals travel at nearly the speed of light.

So doesn't the increase in transmision speed contribute to faster development times in computer neural networks than biological networks?

-Gauvir_Mucca

Well, the grey matter in our brain has a myelin(sp?) sheath which makes the electrical signals travel about 7 times faster.