A Historic First: The Ultimate Brain Map Has Been Unlocked

Metaverse Planet November 20, 2025Last Updated: November 20, 2025

2 minutes read

Created with the insane power of the Fugaku Supercomputer, this Virtual Cortex Map reveals exactly how different brain regions “talk” to each other via electrical and chemical signals. The model kicks off a new era in neuroscience, offering a reliable “spawn point” for understanding human brain development. Scientists have just unveiled the most detailed Brain Map ever crafted.

This mesmerizing schematic represents the stats of a mouse brain: nearly 10 Million Neurons, 26 Billion Synapses, and 86 Connected Brain Regions.

This Digital Replica will help researchers analyze what happens in the brain during disease, how Brain Waves shape mental focus, and how seizures spread through the system. Until now, these questions could only be answered using real brain tissue in single-instance experiments.

Dr. Anton Arkhipov from the Allen Institute calls this map a “technical milestone.” Arkhipov states: “With this level of processing power, the goal of building a full and biophysically accurate Brain Model is no longer just Sci-Fi. Scientists are at a new frontier where understanding the brain literally means being able to build one.”

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Visuals and Mechanics

This stunning new image displays a virtual copy of a mouse cortex—the brain’s critical outer layer. Vivid colors represent different Cortical Areas responsible for specific tasks like visual processing, body movement, and Decision Making. Each region consists of an incredibly dense “forest” of Neurons (nerve cells) transmitting the electrical and chemical signals required to keep the brain and body online.

The Engine: Fugaku’s Massive Computing Power

The tiny white branches radiating from all regions are active neurons signaling to send messages. Electrical signals travel from a neuron’s center down a long extension called an Axon, reaching a connection point with another neuron. This triggers a chemical signal (Neurotransmitters) that flows from one cell to the next, completing the signal cycle and booting up a new electrical current in the next cell.

Dr. Tim Jarsky, Associate Director of Electrophysiology at the Allen Institute, notes: “The brain is a system too complex to solve with intuition alone; Modeling is incredibly important.” He adds, “Even with the subset of neuron types in this dataset, we have countless interactions possible with diverse signaling types. You really need a model to understand how the circuit behaves when you put all these elements together.”

This massive map was rendered using Japan’s ultra-fast Fugaku Supercomputer. Japan’s flagship system is capable of over 400 Quadrillion Calculations per second, processing data faster than you can blink. To put that power into perspective: if you started counting seconds right now, it would take you about 12.7 Billion Years to reach that number.

Dr. Tadashi Yamazaki from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo mentions that Fugaku is used for various computational sciences like astronomy and drug discovery. “On this occasion,” Yamazaki notes, “we utilized Fugaku for Neural Circuit Simulation.”

The Endgame: The Human Brain

According to experts, the long-term goal isn’t just the cortex, but simulating the entire mouse brain and eventually unlocking Human Brain Models. Due to structural similarities between the two species, this model is considered a reliable starting point for human brain development research.

Fugaku was declared the world’s fastest supercomputer in June 2020, though five years later, it has dropped to 7th place on the TOP 500 leaderboard. The top spot is currently held by the US’s third Exo-scale system, El Capitan. (Exo-scale refers to systems capable of at least one quintillion operations per second—that’s a 1 followed by 18 zeros).

A paper detailing this virtual brain simulation is expected to be presented this week at the SC25 Supercomputing Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.