by Armstrong, JD
Abstract:
Models of the brain that simulate sensory input, behavioural output and information processing in a biologically plausible manner pose significant challenges to both Computer Science and Biology. Here we investigated strategies that could be used to create a model of the insect brain, specifically that of Drosophila melanogaster which is very widely used in laboratory research. The scale of the problem is an order of magnitude above the most complex of the current simulation projects and it is further constrained by the relative sparsity of available electrophysiological recordings from the fly nervous system. However, fly brain research at the anatomical and behavioural level offers some interesting opportunities that could be exploited to create a functional simulation. We propose to exploit these strengths of Drosophila CNS research to focus on a functional model that maps biologically plausible network architecture onto phenotypic data from neuronal inhibition and stimulation studies, leaving aside biophysical modelling of individual neuronal activity for future models until more data is available.
Reference:
Towards a Virtual Fly Brain (Armstrong, JD), In Phil Trans R Soc A, volume 367, 2009.
Bibtex Entry:
@article{AH2009a,
_day = {01},
abstract = {Models of the brain that simulate sensory input, behavioural output and information processing in a biologically plausible manner pose significant challenges to both Computer Science and Biology. Here we investigated strategies that could be used to create a model of the insect brain, specifically that of Drosophila melanogaster which is very widely used in laboratory research. The scale of the problem is an order of magnitude above the most complex of the current simulation projects and it is further constrained by the relative sparsity of available electrophysiological recordings from the fly nervous system. However, fly brain research at the anatomical and behavioural level offers some interesting opportunities that could be exploited to create a functional simulation. We propose to exploit these strengths of Drosophila CNS research to focus on a functional model that maps biologically plausible network architecture onto phenotypic data from neuronal inhibition and stimulation studies, leaving aside biophysical modelling of individual neuronal activity for future models until more data is available.},
annotate = {2006 Eigenfactor; Article influence: 2.7653 17th out of 556 in 'Physics' ; Eigenfactor 0.023502 Rank 154th out of 556 in 'Physics' 2007 Scopus SJR 0.174 Rank 4th out of 50 in `Multidisciplinary' h-index 30},
author = {Armstrong, JD and {van Hemert}, J},
date-added = {2008-12-09 11:01:21 +0000},
date-modified = {2009-09-17 10:10:28 +0100},
doi = {10.1098/rsta.2008.0308},
journal = {Phil Trans R Soc A},
keywords = {e-Science},
notedisabled = {\textsc{ISI impact factor = 1.52 (2007, 12th out of 50 in Multidisciplinary Sciences); Scopus SJR = 0.174 (2007, Rank 4th out of 50 in Multidisciplinary)}},
number = {1896},
pages = {2387--97},
pdf = {http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1896/2387.full.pdf+html},
title = {Towards a Virtual Fly Brain},
url = {http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1896/2387.abstract},
volume = {367},
year = {2009},
bdsk-url-1 = {http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1896/2387.abstract},
bdsk-url-2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2008.0308}}