"Working code helps other scientists to learn how to implement an artificial brain in computers, " he says.

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Just as he did with a previous artificial brain model, Yamazaki plans to release the source code for the system.

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Dr Pat Levitt, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania said the artificial brain had "really significant potential".

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Earlier this week, i09 featured a primer, of sorts, by George Dvorsky regarding how an artificial human brain could be built.

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For decades researchers have tried replicating the top-down, hierarchical model of the human brain to create artificial intelligence in computers, without success.

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Markram and IBM both emphasize that the project would not create artificial intelligence but a way to study how neurons in the brain interact with one another.

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Dr James Marshall, a computer scientist at the University of Sheffield co-ordinating the project, said simulating a brain was one of the "major challenges" of artificial intelligence.

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In fact, there are those that argue artificial intelligence is simply unattainable except through the biological pathways of the human brain and the restrictions of the human brain are a byproduct of the design of intelligence itself.

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He has been experimenting with the idea of collecting signals straight from the brain's motor cortex and using them to direct mechanical devices such as artificial arms and even wheelchairs.

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