Large-scale simulations of brain mechanisms: beyond the synthetic method

Journal title PARADIGMI
Author/s Edoardo Datteri, Federico Laudisa
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2015/3
Language English Pages 24 P. 23-46 File size 230 KB
DOI 10.3280/PARA2015-003003
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Nel panorama della ricerca neuroscientifica contemporanea figurano alcuni progetti di ricerca che si propongono di realizzare simulazioni a larga scala dei meccanismi cerebrali caratterizzati da livelli di accuratezza mai raggiunti finora. In questo articolo sosterremo che il contributo teorico e sperimentale atteso da questi progetti simulativi non si limita a quello offerto dal cosiddetto "metodo sintetico" spesso adottato in Intelligenza Artificiale e in biorobotica. Sosterremo inoltre che tali progetti, al di là dell’obiettivo comune di simulare i meccanismi cerebrali, perseguono ambizioni modellistiche concettualmente distinguibili l’una dall’altra, che corrispondono a varie possibili interpretazioni della nozione di "accuratezza biologica". Tra esse troviamo l’ambizione (i) di modellizzare livelli di analisi estremamente "bassi" nella gerarchia di scomposizione meccanicistica; (ii) di simulare reti composte da numeri molto elevati di unità neurali; (iii) di realizzare sistemi dotati di repertori comportamentali molto ricchi; (iv) di simulare modelli "complessi" delle unità di base di cui sono composte le reti; (v) di incorporare le migliori teorie correntemente disponibili sulla struttura e sulle funzioni del sistema nervoso. Solleveremo alcune questioni fondazionali relative al senso di queste ambizioni nel quadro dei vari ruoli che le simulazioni possono svolgere nella ricerca neuroscientifica

Keywords: Biological accuracy, Computational neuroscience, Large-scale brain simulations, Models in neuroscience, Simulation methodologies in neuroscience, Synthetic method.

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  • On the Cognitive, Ethical, and Scientific Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence Edoardo Datteri, pp.205 (ISBN:978-3-030-01799-6)

Edoardo Datteri, Federico Laudisa, Large-scale simulations of brain mechanisms: beyond the synthetic method in "PARADIGMI" 3/2015, pp 23-46, DOI: 10.3280/PARA2015-003003