Replicating Insect Brains on Computers

• Replicating human brain on a computer is complex due to 86 billion neurons.
• Insects have fascinating brains that neuroscientists study as model systems.
• Dragonflies are hunting specialists with only one million neurons.
• Dragonflies perform coordinate transformations to intercept prey.
• A computational step is a single neuron or a layer of neurons working in parallel.
• Dragonflies capture how to intercept in only four computational steps.
• A small neural circuit can be identified and studied with available tools.
• A model of the neural circuit that calculates how dragonflies should turn has been built.
• The goal is to build a computer chip that does the same things as biological brains.
• Insect nervous systems offer an opportunity to understand brains through the creation of computers.

Explore how neuroscientists study insect brains, like those of dragonflies, to understand the complexity of replicating biological brains on computer chips. Learn about the computational steps and neural circuits involved in intercepting prey, and the goal of mimicking biological brain functions on computer chips.