Causal Perturbations to Whole Brain Emulate C. Elegans

Let us simulate a nervous system. Being able to simulate a nervous system is clearly one of the salient goals of systems neuroscience. Being able to do so we need two things: a parts list and a functional description of the neurons. We need to know all the neurons and need to know how they (nonlinearly) influence one another. And yet, we have so far always tried a very indirect approach: observe activities of neurons, and from that data estimate the influences. However, from a causal inference perspective it is clear that this problem is generally ill-posed. In my talk I will sketch what exactly it will take to simulate a complete nervous system: the nervous system of C. elegans. I view this as a crucial and necessary step towards simulating larger nervous systems. I want to see a nervous system simulated. It should (1) describe all activities (2) all behaviors (3) the effect of any stimulation.