World's first digital brain to study mental disorders

Scientists are developing the world's first digital brain in order to uncover new information on mental disorders.

The 10-year-long project aims to map all 100 billion neurons connected by 100,000 billion synapses of the human brain on a single computer system.

South African neuroscientist, Professor Henry Markram, hopes to shed new light on disorders like Alzheimer's Disease with the help of the information gathered, 'Times Live' reported.

"What we are developing is a new foundation, a new instrument - a telescope - that will allow one to look deep into the brain, offering a more systematical approach to any disease," Markram told the Sunday Times newspaper.

Markram has been provided a 12 billion South African rand grant from the European Union for the project which is being created in a supercomputer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Markram - who has an autistic son - said he believed the project would "help us find new ways to treat autism".

More than 200 researchers will work with Markram on the project which is expected to take about 10 years to complete.