Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Psalm 139:14 NLT
This complexity has generally
been seen as largely arising from the ways in which vast numbers of
neurons (nerve cells) can connect to and interact with each other. It is
increasingly being recognized that for many key types of brain nerve
cells, the individual neurons themselves are “highly complicated I/O [input/output] information processing devices.”
Beniaguev et al. utilized advances in machine (computer)
learning, namely deep artificial neural networks that mimic how our
neurons communicate with each other, to mimic the I/O operations of a
‘biological’ neuron model.
This included its elaborate architecture and
other properties, as well as the “large number of excitatory and
inhibitory inputs that bombard the neuron.”
As reported by Whitten, the study found that to represent the
computational complexity of a single such neuron model required “about
1,000 artificial neurons for just one biological neuron.”
Whitten
mentioned computational neuroscientist Grace Lindsay as cautioning the
study was “only comparing a model to a model.” It was currently
impossible “to record the full input-output function of a real neuron”.
The model of the neuron was likely not capturing everything. “In other
words, real neurons might be even more complex.”
There are roughly 86 billion neurons in our brain, each interacting
with others in sophisticated networks. And like all cells, neurons are a
world of structural and biochemical complexity in and of themselves.
It’s hard to argue with the oft-cited phrase that the human brain is the
most complex organization of matter in the known universe. Yet it’s
widely taught that it evolved, with no creative design, plan, or
purpose." CMI
