Getting a better understanding of how the brain works is tricky, as living brains aren't easily prodded and analyzed. Scientists now have a new simulation of a mouse's brain to refer to – one of the most comprehensive that's ever been put together.

The creation was led by a team from the Allen Institute in the US and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, and it may allow diseases such as Alzheimer's to be modeled and studied in greater detail.

The simulation models an entire mouse cortex . While this isn't nearly as large or as intricate as a human brain, which contains billions of neurons , there are similarities between human and rodent brains – so this could be a useful study tool.

The numbers are impressive: the virtual brain contains 9 million neurons, as wel

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