( CNN ) -- There 's no escaping the fact that the Human Brain Project , with its billion-dollar plan to recreate the human mind inside a supercomputer , sounds like a science fiction nightmare . But those involved hope their ambitious goal of simulating the tangle of neurons and synapses that power our thought processes could offer solutions to tackling conditions such as depression , Parkinson 's disease and Alzheimer 's . The Human Brain venture is the next step in a long-running program that has already succeeded in using computers to create a virtual replica of part of a rat 's neocortex -- a section of the brain believed to control higher functions such as conscious thought , movement and reasoning . Scientists at its forerunner , the Switzerland-based Blue Brain Project , have been working since 2005 to feed a computer with vast quantities of data and algorithms produced from studying tiny slivers of rodent gray matter . Last month they announced a significant advancement when they were able to use their simulator to accurately predict the location of synapses in the neocortex , effectively mapping out the complex electrical brain circuitry through which thoughts travel . Henry Markram , the South African-born neuroscientist who heads the project , said the breakthrough would have taken `` decades , if not centuries '' to chart using a real neocortex . He said it was proof their concept , dubbed `` brain in a box '' by Nature magazine , would work . Read : Mapping out a new era in brain research . Now the team are joining forces with other scientists to create the Human Brain Project . As its name suggests , they aim to scale up their model to recreate an entire human brain . It is a step that will need both a huge increase in funding and access to computers so advanced that they have yet to be built . If their current bid for â‚¬1 billion ( $ 1.3 billion ) of European Commission funding over the next 10 years is successful , Markram predicts that his computer neuroscientists are a decade away from producing a synthetic mind that could , in theory , talk and interact in the same way humans do . His bold claims have inevitably fueled comparisons to doom-laden popular fiction in which conscious machines turn on their creators and wreak havoc . The project 's scientists have been referred to as `` team Frankenstein '' and their computer likened to `` Skynet , '' the virtual intelligence that unleashes a robot war on humanity in the `` Terminator '' films . Sean Hill , a senior computational neuroscientist on the project , laughs at such comparisons . He says the computer will primarily become a repository for knowledge about the brain that will allow scientists to conduct experiments without the need to probe inside people 's skulls . Read : $ 1 billion mission to reach the Earth 's mantle . `` This is a tool for research , not a giant simulated brain that is going to rule the world , '' he said . `` Right now , we 're in a crisis in neuroscience . There 's a lot of wonderful data being gathered but we do n't have a place where we can put those experimental results together and understand their implications . `` The benefit of having this facility is you have a place to integrate the data into a model where you can test predictions and start to learn principles of how the brain operates . '' The computing power needed to build the model is phenomenal . Simply to replicate one of the 10,000 neuron brain cells involved in the rat experiment took the processing capacity usually found in a single laptop . To simulate a fully functioning human brain , it would take billions . Hill says that such computational power -- known as exascale -- will be available by the end of the decade . The Human Brain Project 's scientists are hoping to work with supercomputer developers to ensure future machines match their requirements . But , even as the team touts its experiments as a possible solution to the brain diseases that affect about two billion people worldwide , they have attracted critics who say their work is far too broad in scope to achieve usable results . Professor Terry Sejnowski , head of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego , has been quoted as saying the Blue Brain project is `` bound to fail . '' Read : How the search for aliens can help sustain life on Earth . He told CNN via email that `` progress is being made but there is still a long way to go before we will understand the computational capabilities of cortical circuits . '' He added : `` We are just beginning to appreciate how complex our brains are , far beyond any other device in the known universe . '' Sean Hill said the team hoped it was answering skeptics with its achievements so far . `` It 's just a matter of keeping on doing it . Let 's keep improving these tools and open them up so that many scientists are engaged and collaborating and using it as common point to bring the data together , '' he said . `` The only way to address the critics is to keep working , showing the positive results and do the best we can -- and that is starting to happen . ''
Human Brain Project will use supercomputers to mimic tangle of neurons and molecules that power our thoughts . Scientists say the simulator could offer new insight into the treatment of brain disease like Parkinson 's and Alzheimer 's . ` ` Brain in a box '' is unlikely to transform into spy - fi - like fantasy based on world domination , they say .