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This article draws on long-term engagement with the Human Brain Project (HBP), one of the Future and Emerging Technology Flagship Initiatives funded by the European Commission to address EU "grand challenges" of understanding the human brain and applying these insights to brain-inspired technology development. Based on participant observation and interviews with researchers and project administrators, our findings suggest that the formal infrastructure built to facilitate and structure collaboration within large-scale interdisciplinary research projects can be in tension with the ways researchers collaborate. While much of the literature on infrastructure focuses on top-down, formal infrastructural design, we also pay attention to the informal, bottom-up infrastructural assemblage involved in large-scale interdisciplinary collaborations. This brings into question how scientists and science funders navigate the tensions and interactions between formal and informal infrastructure, rendering certain kinds of collaboration and knowledge (in)visible.

The simulation of the behavior of the Human Brain is one of the most important challenges today in computing. The main problem consists of finding efficient ways to manipulate and compute the huge volume of data that this kind of simulations need, using the current technology. In this sense, this work is focused on one of the main steps of such simulation, which consists of computing the Voltage on neurons' morphology. This is carried out using the Hines Algorithm. Although this algorithm is the optimum method in terms of number of operations, it is in need of non-trivial modifications to be efficiently parallelized on NVIDIA GPUs. We proposed several optimizations to accelerate this algorithm on GPU-based architectures, exploring the limitations of both, method and architecture, to be able to solve efficiently a high number of Hines systems (neurons). Each of the optimizations are deeply analyzed and described. To evaluate the impact of the optimizations on real inputs, we have used 6 different morphologies in terms of size and branches. Our studies have proven that the optimizations proposed in the present work can achieve a high performance on those computations with a high number of neurons, being our GPU implementations about 4× and 8× faster than the OpenMP multicore implementation (16 cores), using one and two K80 NVIDIA GPUs respectively. Also, it is important to highlight that these optimizations can continue scaling even when dealing with number of neurons. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 720270 (HBP SGA1), from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project Computación de Altas Prestaciones VII (TIN2015-65316-P) and the Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya, under project MPEXPAR: Models de Programació i Entorns d'Execució Paral·lels (2014-SGR-1051). We thank the support of NVIDIA through the BSC/UPC NVIDIA GPU Center of Excellence. Antonio J. Peña is cofinanced by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Juan de la Cierva fellowship number IJCI-2015-23266. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)

The simulation of the behavior of the Human Brain is one of the most important challenges today in computing. The main problem consists of finding efficient ways to manipulate and compute the huge volume of data that this kind of simulations need, using the current technology. In this sense, this work is focused on one of the main steps of such simulation, which consists of computing the Voltage on neurons' morphology. This is carried out using the Hines Algorithm. Although this algorithm is the optimum method in terms of number of operations, it is in need of non-trivial modifications to be efficiently parallelized on NVIDIA GPUs. We proposed several optimizations to accelerate this algorithm on GPU-based architectures, exploring the limitations of both, method and architecture, to be able to solve efficiently a high number of Hines systems (neurons). Each of the optimizations are deeply analyzed and described. To evaluate the impact of the optimizations on real inputs, we have used 6 different morphologies in terms of size and branches. Our studies have proven that the optimizations proposed in the present work can achieve a high performance on those computations with a high number of neurons, being our GPU implementations about 4× and 8× faster than the OpenMP multicore implementation (16 cores), using one and two K80 NVIDIA GPUs respectively. Also, it is important to highlight that these optimizations can continue scaling even when dealing with number of neurons. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 720270 (HBP SGA1), from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project Computación de Altas Prestaciones VII (TIN2015-65316-P) and the Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya, under project MPEXPAR: Models de Programació i Entorns d'Execució Paral·lels (2014-SGR-1051). We thank the support of NVIDIA through the BSC/UPC NVIDIA GPU Center of Excellence. Antonio J. Peña is cofinanced by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Juan de la Cierva fellowship number IJCI-2015-23266. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)

The Human Brain Project (HBP) was launched in October 2013 by the European Commission to build an information and communication technology infrastructure that would support large-scale brain modelling and simulation. Less than a year after its launch, more than 800 neuroscientists signed a letter that claimed the HBP 'would fail to meet its goals'. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between February 2014 and January 2017 in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the HBP headquarters in Switzerland, and over 40 interviews with scientists, engineers and project administrators, this article traces how competing visions over how brain models should be built became tied into debates over how scientific communities should be governed. Articulations of these different kinds of models and communities appealed to competing imaginaries of Europe itself – of Europe and European science as unified or pluralistic. This article argues that scientific models are sites of contestation over social and political futures. The tensions between visions of scientific unification and pluralism in the HBP mirrored the tensions between imaginaries of European political unification and pluralism.

The Human Brain Project (HBP) was launched in October 2013 by the European Commission to build an information and communication technology infrastructure that would support large-scale brain modelling and simulation. Less than a year after its launch, more than 800 neuroscientists signed a letter that claimed the HBP 'would fail to meet its goals'. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between February 2014 and January 2017 in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the HBP headquarters in Switzerland, and over 40 interviews with scientists, engineers and project administrators, this article traces how competing visions over how brain models should be built became tied into debates over how scientific communities should be governed. Articulations of these different kinds of models and communities appealed to competing imaginaries of Europe itself – of Europe and European science as unified or pluralistic. This article argues that scientific models are sites of contestation over social and political futures. The tensions between visions of scientific unification and pluralism in the HBP mirrored the tensions between imaginaries of European political unification and pluralism.

This is the final publication of the H2020 TAIPI project - Tools and Actions for Impact Assessment and Policy makers Information. TAIPI supported the EU Flagships with impact assessment and evaluation from January 2015 until April 2018. ZSI was partner and work-package leader in the project, and responsible for preparing this publication. This publication shows first impacts of the EU Flagships Human Brain Project (HBP) and Graphene, which have both started in October 2013 and will be operating for about 10 years. The identified impacts have occurred in the first four years of their implementation. Key impact dimensions are illustrated with data and analysis; the dimensions include structural, cooperation & collaboration, scientific, economic, and social impact.

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is an important ethical, legal, and political theme for the European Commission. Although variously defined, it is generally understood as an interactive process that engages social actors, researchers, and innovators who must be mutually responsive and work towards the ethical permissibility of the relevant research and its products. The framework of RRI calls for contextually addressing not just research and innovation impact but also the background research process, specially the societal visions underlying it and the norms and priorities that shape scientific agendas. This requires the integration of anticipatory, inclusive, and responsive dimensions, and the nurturing of a certain type of reflexivity among a variety of stakeholders, from scientists to funders. In this paper, we do not address potential limitations but focus on the potential contribution of philosophical reflection to RRI in the context of the Ethics and Society subproject of the Human Brain Project (HBP). We show how the type of conceptual analysis provided by philosophically oriented approaches theoretically and ethically broadens research and innovation within the HBP. We further suggest that overt inclusion of philosophical reflection can promote the aims and objectives of RRI. ; Human Brain Project

Europe has developed the Human Brain Project (HBP) whose main promoters are the US multinational company, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the Switzerland government and Dr. Henry Markram who is responsible for the project and announced publicly that the first artificial brain could be created in 2020. The presumptions indicate that due to what is utopian of the project and the security with what they affirm the objectives will be achieved, the forced and illegal human experimentation can be the secret method of Markram and his partners of the Human Brain Project. The hypotheses are reinforced by recent researches that suggest that IBM, the main organizer of the Human Brain Project, has performed illegal experiments with humans during the TrueNorth neuromorphic chip manufacturing and by the creation of learning projects in Mexico children's hospitals. The long list of illegal medical experiments and corrupt governments in Latin America that have allowed them officially, forces the doctors to be alert, research and denounce possible cruel neuroscientific experiments that are being performed in the Human Brain Project. ; Europa ha desarrollado el Proyecto Cerebro Humano (The Human Brain Project –HBP-) cuyos principales promotores son: la multinacional estadounidense International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), el gobierno de Suiza y el Dr. Henry Markram, responsable del proyecto, quien anunció públicamente que puede crear el primer cerebro artificial en 2020. Las presunciones apuntan a que por lo utópico del proyecto y la seguridad con que afirman que van a lograr sus objetivos, la experimentación humana forzada e ilícita puede ser el método secreto de Markram y sus socios del Proyecto Cerebro Humano. Las hipótesis se refuerzan por recientes investigaciones que hacen pensar que IBM, la principal organizadora del Proyecto Cerebro Humano, ha realizado experimentos ilícitos con humanos en la construcción del chip neuromórfico TrueNorth y por la creación de proyectos de aprendizaje en hospitales infantiles de México. La larga lista de experimentos médicos ilícitos y gobiernos corruptos en Latinoamérica que los han permitido oficialmente, obliga a los médicos a estar alerta, investigar y denunciar posibles experimentos neurocientíficos inhumanos que se estén realizando en el Proyecto Cerebro Humano.

Brain dynamics depicts an extremely complex energy landscape that changes over time, and its characterisation is a central unsolved problem in neuroscience. We approximate the non-stationary landscape sustained by the human brain through a novel mathematical formalism that allows us characterise the attractor structure, i.e. the stationary points and their connections. Due to its time-varying nature, the structure of the global attractor and the corresponding number of energy levels changes over time. We apply this formalism to distinguish quantitatively between the different human brain states of wakefulness and different stages of sleep, as a step towards future clinical applications. ; J.A.G., I.G. and J.A.L have been partially supported by Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and FEDER, projects MTM2015-63723-P, PGC2018-096540-B-I00, Proyecto US-1254251 del Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) y la Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad de la Junta de Andalucía, dentro del Programa Operativo FEDER 2014-2020 and Proyecto PAIDI 2020 P20_00592. S.S.P. is supported by the Research Project PGC2018-096641-B-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades / Agencia Estatal de Investigación /FEDER, UE). G.D. is supported by the Spanish Research Project PSI2016-75688-P (Agencia Estatal de Investigacíon/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, European Union); by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreements 720270 (Human Brain Project [HBP] SGA1) and 785907 (HBP SGA2); and by the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants Programme 2017 SGR 1545. M.L.K. is supported by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant: CAREGIVING (615539) and Center for Music in the Brain, funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF117). H.L. and data acquisition were supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (grant no. 01 EV 0703); H.L. and E.T. by the LOEWE Neuronale Koordination ...

Intro -- Preface: Neuroscience and Chemical and Biological Warfare -- Contents -- Acronyms -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part IThe Context -- 1 Modern Neuroscience -- 1.1 Introduction: Healing the Brain -- 1.2 Towards a Mechanistic Neuroscience? -- 1.3 Sleep Research -- 1.4 A Revolution in Neuroscience -- References -- 2 The Chemical and Biological Non-proliferation Regime in 2018 -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention -- 2.3 The Chemical Weapons Convention -- 2.4 Novichocks -- 2.5 Conclusion -- References -- 3 Neuroethics and the Regulation of Misuse -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Neuroethics and Dual Use in 2016 and 2018 -- 3.3 Governance of Dual Use: Zagreb, Croatia -- 3.4 Development of a Code of Conduct: Tianjin, China -- 3.5 Conclusion -- References -- 4 Dual-Use Neuroscience? -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Forecasting Technology Change -- 4.3 Modulation of Neuronal Circuits -- 4.3.1 Parkinson's Disease and Drug Delivery -- 4.3.2 Orexin -- 4.3.3 Oxytocin -- 4.4 Conclusion -- References -- Part IIThe Brain Projects -- 5 The EU Human Brain Project -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The EU Human Brain Project -- 5.3 Dealing with Dual Use -- 5.4 Conclusion -- References -- 6 The US BRAIN Initiative -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Neuroethics Developments in the BRAIN Initiative -- 6.3 The BRAIN Initiative and Dual Use -- 6.3.1 Structure and Function of Opioid Receptors -- 6.3.2 BRAIN Research on Circuits: Sleep/Wake -- 6.3.3 BRAIN Research on Circuits: Threat, Fear and Anxiety -- 6.3.4 BRAIN Research on Circuits: Aggression -- 6.4 Conclusion -- References -- 7 Global Neuroethics in Early 2019 -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Objectives of the Brain Projects in 2016 -- 7.3 Neuroethics in the Brain Projects in 2019 -- 7.4 Assessment of the Progress in Dealing with Dual Use -- 7.5 Strategic Interactions in 2019.

During the sleep-wake cycle, the brain undergoes profound dynamical changes, which manifest subjectively as transitions between conscious experience and unconsciousness. Yet, neurophysiological signatures that can objectively distinguish different consciousness states based are scarce. Here, we show that differences in the level of brain-wide signals can reliably distinguish different stages of sleep and anesthesia from the awake state in human and monkey fMRI resting state data. Moreover, a whole-brain computational model can faithfully reproduce changes in global synchronization and other metrics such as functional connectivity, structure-function relationship, integration and segregation across vigilance states. We demonstrate that the awake brain is close to a Hopf bifurcation, which naturally coincides with the emergence of globally correlated fMRI signals. Furthermore, simulating lesions of individual brain areas highlights the importance of connectivity hubs in the posterior brain and subcortical nuclei for maintaining the model in the awake state, as predicted by graph-theoretical analyses of structural data. ; G.D. was supported by the Spanish Research Project AWAKENING: using whole-brain models perturbational approaches for predicting external stimulation to force transitions between different brain states, ref. PID2019-105772GB-I00 /AEI/10.13039/501100011033, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU), State Research Agency (AEI), and by the Catalan AGAUR program 2017 SGR 1545. G.D., G.H. and G.Z. received support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 720270 (Human Brain Project SGA1), No. 785907 (Human Brain Project SGA2) and No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3). G.H. was funded by the grant CONSCBRAIN (n. 661583) of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie action. G.D. and G.H. received funding from the German Research Council (DFG, No. KN 588/7 – 1) within the priority program Computational Connectomics (SPP 2041). E.T. and H.L. were supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (grant number 01 EV 0703) and the LOEWE Neuronale Koordination Forschungsschwerpunkt Frankfurt (NeFF). M.L.K. is supported by the ERC Consolidator Grant: CAREGIVING (n. 615539), Center for Music in the Brain, funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF117), and centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing funded by the Pettit and Carlsberg Foundations.