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."

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