Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/1161
39 WWW.HPLusmAGAzINe.COm 39 WWW.HPLusmAGAzINe.COm 39 39 CarL-1 has thousands of neurons and millions of synapses that "are just about the edge of the amount of size and complexity found in real brains." The Biggest Dragon: Higher Cortical Functions meanwhile, richard Granger is using brain bots to hunt down yet another grail: where language originates in the brain. "It's been pretty widely demonstrated that the brain is modular and highly uniform," he says. "There are certain broad stroke differences between humans and other animals, but we can count the number of those on two hands. Yet humans can speak and animals can't. That's a pretty big difference. And even the variations that have been found in brain language areas like Broca's Area don't hint at how language could emerge from the changes found. so where is language? We've spent billions trying to track down its origins and still can't fi nd it." Granger believes that the only real differences between animal and human brains are size and connectivity, an argument he lays out in his book Big Brain. "Humans have a lot bigger brains so we have much more space for neurons to make connections, to link with other neurons." It's in that space, in those extra connections, where Granger thinks language emerges. If he's right, as his bot brains draw closer and closer is size and complexity to human brains, language should start to emerge — and Granger will get to watch it happen. Of course, since neurobotics is a dragon-slayer's approach, there are also a few scientists going after the biggest dragon. Just like Granger is upping complexity to examine language, researchers at Imperial College in London are doing the same thing for consciousness. "All of this work is comparable," says Granger, "because we're all modeling cortical structures to build whole brain models with the intention of seeing if higher functions like language and consciousness develop." And if what they've discovered so far is any indication, then when it comes to developing higher cortical function in neurobots, it's really not a question of if, only "when." resOurCes richard Granger's Brain engineering Laboratory http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rhg Jeffrey L. Krichmar http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 CarL-1 has thousands of neurons and millions of synapses that "are just about the edge of the amount of size and complexity human brains are size and connectivity, an argument he lays out in his . "Humans have a lot bigger brains so we have much more space for neurons to make connections, to link with other neurons." It's in that space, in those extra connections, where Granger thinks language emerges. If he's right, as his bot brains draw closer and closer is size and complexity to human brains, language should start to emerge — and Of course, since neurobotics is a dragon-slayer's approach, there are also a few scientists going after the biggest dragon. Just like Granger is upping complexity to examine language, researchers at Imperial seeing if higher functions like language and consciousness develop." And if what they've discovered so far is any indication, then when it comes to developing higher cortical function in neurobots, it's really not a question