X-Message-Number: 22629 Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 20:15:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Skrecky <> Subject: how the brain stacks up Salk Researcher Provides New View On How The Brain Functions In the Sept. 26 issue of Science, Salk Institute professor Terrence Sejnowski and University of Cambridge professor Simon Laughlin argue that the human brain has evolved to operate as an enormously efficient "hybrid device," capable of making far more sophisticated computations than the most powerful computers, and the long-distance communication systems in brains have been optimized by evolution for energy efficiency. As the brain has evolved over millions of years, according to Sejnowski, it has become amazingly efficient and powerful. He says that nature has "optimized the structure and function of cortical networks with design principles similar to those used in electronic networks." To illustrate the brain's tremendous capacity, Sejnowski and Laughlin state that the potential bandwidth of all of the neurons in the human cortex is "comparable to the total world backbone capacity of the Internet in 2002." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22629