CHENNAI: Researchers are increasingly focusing on the human brain as neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and biomedical engineering come together across labs worldwide. At ThinkEdu Conclave 2026, organised by The New Indian Express, a session titled ‘Mapping the Human Brain: Understanding Intelligence’ explored how new tools and datasets are expanding what science can measure and infer about cognition, neural networks, and brain function. The human brain, he noted, has about 100 billion neurons and roughly 20 to 40 trillion connections. He said that new imaging and sectioning methods will have to be built to close these gaps. Quoting Nobel laureate Francis Crick, he emphasised that detailed neuroanatomy is essential to understand living human brain activity, and that techniques used in animal models are often not directly usable in humans.
