Neuroscience and AI

By Anmol Garg

These are exciting times, as breakthroughs occur commonly in neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence. The symbiotic relationship between neuroscience and AI is reciprocal. While essentially, designing AI models to mimic the human nervous system was possible mainly due to neuroscientific research, AI is now rapidly becoming an invaluable tool in neuroscience.

So, let us look at the incredible innovation opportunities that intend to constantly discover the depths and myriad capabilities of the human brain.

Mind- Reading

Decoding how the brain operates

Man has wondered about understanding how the brain functions. While it may sound mind-boggling to some, scientists were able to compute vast amounts of brain data to predict human behavior using AI and machine learning. This technology has developed to the extent that a group of researchers in Japan have also used this technique to scan people while they’re sleeping and were able to start decoding what people dream.

Taking another example of innovations in mind-reading, a group of researchers built sophisticated machine learning models for understanding the relationship between watching a movie and the brain activity that you can infer by the use of Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The image depicts a contrast between the original image and the one generated from fMRI alone.

Brain Mapping

Understanding How the Brain Communicates

“Working out how all the different brain regions are connected, aka connectecom of the brain, is vital to fully understand the brain and all the complex processes it carries out.” — Professor Kenji Doya (OIST University)

Brain mapping and imaging involve techniques that aim to understand how the different parts of the brain communicate with each other.

Using diffusion MRI-based fiber tracking, scientists can estimate the connectomes non-invasively. It uses water molecules as they move — or diffuse — along nerve fibers. Then, a computer algorithm predicts the path of the nerve fibers throughout the brain using these water signals.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning can identify the best parameters to improve that algorithm and more accurately determine the connectome of brains.

There are endless benefits of Brain Mapping. Since this field helps us explore the depths of the physical structure of the human brain, it brings us one step closer to identifying neurological and mental disorders.

Such Developments in neuroscience illuminate how AI systems play a crucial role in painting an increasingly accurate picture of the human brain and its functioning. Thus, we can conclude that the progress in each of these fields is not a hindrance but highly critical for the other.