Computing the Brain and the Computing Brain

Abstract

Computational neuroanatomy is a new emerging field in neuroscience, combining the vast, data-rich field of neuroanatomy with the computational power of novel hardware, software, and computer graphics. Many research groups are developing scientific strategies to simulate the structure of the nervous system at different scales. This first chapter reviews several of these strategies and briefly introduces those that are expanded in the subsequent chapters of the book. The long-tersm end result of the collective effort by researchers in computational neuroanatomy and neuroscience at large will be a comprehensive structural and functional model of the brain. Such a model might have deep implications for scientific understanding as well as technological development.