A Human Neutrom Project Using High Energy Physics Technology

by Prof. Hirotaka Sugawara (Soken Dai University)

Tuesday Feb 19, 2008, 1:00 PM → 3:30 PM Pacific/Honolulu

WAT 417 Library (University of Hawai'i, Manoa)

There are approximately 200 billion neurons in a human brain and each neuron gets information from about 1000 other neurons through synapses. Memory is thought to be the totality of the synapse strength which is roughly the number of neurotransmitter channels on each synapse. Sodium channels play an important role in sending the information through dendrites and axons. I would like to discuss the possibility of determining the map of this whole set of neurons interconnected to each other with determined strength. The method utilizes some refined version of technology used in high energy physics together with technologies of organic chemistry and of physiology. I will also discuss the possibility of watching the series of firings of neurons in a brain.
Organizer: J.G. Learned