It is the quality of brain neurons, and not their number and connections between them, as previously thought, that makes human intelligence more developed than that of other mammals, follows from the results of a study published in the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). As scientists from Israel and the Netherlands found out based on the original method, the computing power of one neuron in the human cerebral cortex also turned out to be comparable to an entire deep learning neural network that simulated its work.
To carry out the analysis, scientists developed the so-called Functional Complexity Index (FCI) – an original system for assessing the complexity of input and output data of neurons based on deep machine learning.
By comparing rat and human cerebral cortices across different layers via FCI, the researchers identified key morphoelectric factors underlying the functional complexity of human brain neurons.
“Human cortical pyramidal neurons are significantly more complex from a functional point of view than their rat counterparts, primarily due to differences in dendritic membrane area and branching patterns, as well as in receptor density and nonlinearity,” the publication notes.
By comparing the work of human neurons with artificial intelligence (AI), scientists found that the proposed tasks were most difficult for the “twins” of the cells of the cerebral cortex. This showed that this is where the most advanced neurons of the human brain are contained.
“People often think of a neuron as a simple switch that is either on or off. We have shown that a single human neuron is itself an extremely complex computing device,” said one of the authors of the work, Idan Segev, in a conversation with Medical Xpress.
The researchers added that the research could inspire tech startups to create a new generation of brain-inspired AI. Such a neural network could consist of artificial elements that themselves have high computing power. RTVI previously wrote that American billionaire Jeff Bezos invested in the development of this kind of “copy” of the human brain.
