HPC from A-Z (part 14) - N

N is for Neuroscience

Earlier blog posts in this series have addressed the potential High Performance Computing has in helping scientists with medical research. This post focuses on Neuroscience in particular.

High Performance Computing can help neuroscientists quickly and effectively create and test accurate models of the brain. This helps bring research to life and could potentially unlock many of the mysteries of this complex organ. HPC can be used to research mental health problems, such as depression, and also neurological disorders, such as epilepsy. HPC is also being used for Alzheimer’s research.

The Visual Neuroscience Group at Harvard’s Rowland Institute is using HPC to better understand how the brain works. I like their analogy: “the brain is a massively parallel computer, far exceeding the power available in currently available computers”. If you’re going to try and understand the most complex organ in the human body, then it makes sense to match this research with the most powerful computing available.