From worm intelligence to human intellect

Siberian scientists decided to understand human wisdom through the lens of the roundworm.

The Novosibirsk Institute of Informatics Systems has developed a computer model of the nervous system of nematodes, which can then be used to create a human intellectual model . Experts insist that it is the first virtual artificial creature in the world.

It can be said of a person who is "wriggling like a worm . " But it turns out that it is not the only similarity between humans and worms. of the most studied multicellular organism in the world is nematode, now Russian scientists have built the first version of the neural network model that controls muscle contraction and associated with transfer Scientific collaborator Scientific collaborator of the Russian Academy of Sciences Informatics Institute Sergei Haryrulin told Voice of Russia:

'The uniqueness of invention is that this is the first attempt to create a living creature replica by precise and precise computer simulation, including muscular system, body model and god system. Sutra controls all important processes of living things.

According to him, Europe and the United States are very interested in creating human brain models . Model of scientists Novosibirsk is a simple version of this work. Based on a simple organism, it is a nematode worm with only 302 neurons. For comparison: for people, this number is about 80 billion. Overseas, similar studies were conducted in mice but there was no breakthrough because the rat brain was much more complex and the studies were too selective. Mr. Sergei Khairulin said:

'Their method is to take a "column" of nerve cells , study it and then replicate it many times. So, a system, the number of neurons in the brain compares with people or mice, but the structure is the same. They do not consider many links between the "columns" of neurons or other areas of the brain. And we have a complete model. Full copies of the nematode nervous system are all carefully simulated neurons and reproduced in a computer simulation. That is not some area of ​​the neural network but the whole network. "

It is no coincidence that scientists have selected nematodes to be a research sample. Nematodes are the most studied multicellular organisms today. Experts know exactly the nervous system components and the morphology of each of their neurons.'Artificial intelligence' created by Siberia scientists can be a great foundation for the next work. Based on that, it is possible to create more complex computer versions of the nervous system of organisms, emphasized by inventors. However, can not wait for quick results - to develop the virtual computer version of the nematode takes five years, the path to humans will certainly be much further.