Exhibition

The Connectome: A New Dimension of Humanity

Seung Lab, Sebastian Seung & Amy R. Sterling (USA)

Galata Greek Primary School

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“How are we human? …Our thoughts and reflections give rise to neural networks in the brain, which activate later when we contemplate related ideas… Roughly 80 billion neurons are connected through 100 trillion synapses in a dense web. The world as you know it is represented in your brain by electrical and chemical impulses flowing through this network of connections. Though your brain exists in the dark cavern of a skull, you are not one brain in isolation. You are one incredible brain among 7 billion others who are building on the cultural and technological foundations of many more billions of ancestors… So are we human? Perhaps this question demands more discussion. At least we can say that together we are humanity.” –AS, SS

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Neuroscientist H. Sebastian Seung aspires to create the first full mapping of the human brain. The Connectome: A New Dimension of Humanity presents digital and physical models of the “brain’s connectome,” a term that refers to the malleable pattern of connections between the brain’s neurons. Many of these complex three-dimensional models, from the small world of synapses to the larger connectome network, have been created through Eyewire, an online crowd-sourcing game initiated in Seung’s Lab.