HOW MANY NEURONS IN THE BRAIN?

23 million

  86 billion

  1 billion

If you answered 86 billion you are correct. The astonishing figure just one of many mind-boggling facts that were new to me while moderating the Future of Life Science symposium in Sweden. This year’s focus was the human brain, for centuries a mystery and much misunderstood. Preparing for the conference, one of the history’s most celebrated brains came to mind: that of Albert Einstein. After his death his brain was surreptitiously removed and cut into 240 blocks and 12 sets of 200 slides containing tissue samples. While some of the ensuing studies were informative, the secret to his genius remained elusive. What would today’s advances in neuroscience reveal if Einstein were alive?   

No doubt some of the world’s leading brain scientists at the event had the answer. Over 24 hours in the beautiful surroundings of Englesberg Iron Works we discussed what we knew about the brain and behaviours, pitted human cognition against artificial intelligence, explored cutting edge technologies and the ethical, financial and philosophical issues that arose.

Technologies used by neuroscientists have expanded enormously from molecular and cellular studies of individual neurons to imaging of sensory, motor and cognitive tasks in the brain. Advanced diagnostics, including genomics, proteomics, and imaging, can today be used in combination to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In regenerative medicine, stem cell therapies are now being tested in clinical trials to treat different neurological diseases.

Added to this is Artificial Intelligence – what impact is AI having on our brains? Peter Gärdenfors, Professor of Cognitive Science at Lund University, pointed out that artificial intelligence is still almost entirely focused on language, numbers, and image pixels, and its inability to learn from a body's sensory experiences still hinders it from being human-like in many respects. Torkel Klinberg, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Karolinska Institute who is an advocate of brain training and brain exercise warned that tools such as ChatGPt will make young people less intelligent as they surrender their thinking to AI.

As a science journalist I have always been fascinated by Brain Computer interfaces which enable paralysed people to control robotic tools and communicate.

Novel neurotechnology, where the mind “is leaving the body and devices enter the mind from the outside”, raises several ethical questions. From a technological standpoint, neurotechnology can be integrated into consumer products such as headphones, which will be able to detect different cognitive and emotional states of the brain. Sean Pauzauskie, Neurologist at the UCHealth system and medical director at The Neurorights Foundation, explained how the Foundation is working to leverage neurotechnologies for social good and safeguard them from misuse.

What a thought-provoking event! I’m looking forward to moderating the Future of Life Science next year – subject TBA.