Would appreciate any comment on this, I've tried to figure it out but I'm stumped.If somebody says 'I'm not a medical expert', then you shouldn't give ANY medical advice. Is there any way to store more data than you have equivalent storage bits? Is there any conceivable way the brain could store data more densely than the atomic level? If not, it would seem that 10^27 bits, not 10^8432 bits would form the maximum theoretical upper limit on memory capacity. Even if you assume each atom has six degrees of freedom, and that memory bits are stored on the atomic level, that's only about 10^27 bits. The brain contains very roughly 10^26 atoms. While I agree that number of potential neural paths exist, I'm not sure 10^8432 bits of storage is possible. It takes a special program to calculate such large factorials, but the result is 10^8432. M = average # of connections between neurons We'll conservatively assume 100 billion neurons of 3,000 synapses each:Ĭonnection possibilities (unique pathways) = n! / m! * (n - m)!, where The formula for calculating this is simple - just calculate the number of combinations. Each possible pathway from any synapse to any other synapse in the brain constitutes a potential unique memory element. The average number of synapses per neuron vary from about 3,000 to 7,000. Thus the maximum capacity is given by the total possible number of connection paths.Įstimates of # neurons vary from about 100 to 500 billion. Once a given pathway is activated, a persistent change is somehow made such that re-activation triggers recalls the memory element (bit?). Their basis for this: each possible neural connection path constitutes a memory bit. The authors estimate the human brain's memory capacity at 10^8432 bits (yes, that's no typo). If all those numbers are crrect then thats about right.Ī recent paper on this subject is Discovering the Capacity of Human Memory, Wang, et al, 2003, Brain and Mind, vol 4, no 2, p. No-on happens to know the maximum number do they. If I knew exactly how many connections each neuron could form it would be possible to calculate the number of possible pathways. If each possible conection patern is concidered a 'brain State' then brain states is probably what the original speaker ment to say. but if each conection can have at least two posible states to be in' date=' say on or off, then the number of different configurations, possible combinations of on's and off's is some hugh number like 100 trilion squared or factoral or something much bigger than my brain could ever understand. The number of conections can not obviously be more than even the number of atoms in the brain. Note that I don't know the average number of connections that each neuron makes, but it would have to be a very large number for the amount of possible connections to equal the amount of atoms in the universe. If there are 10^11 neurons and each one can make 100 connections then the total possible number of different connections is 10^13 times 10^13, which is only 10^26 and much smaller than the estimated 10^80 or so atoms in the universe. I'm guessing that when people use the term 'potential connections' they are referring to the amount of possible different connections that could be made.

Obviously the brain could not have anywhere near this amount of connections because a human skull could not contain half the mass of the universe. If each connection requires at least two atoms (they really require more) then the amount of connections in the brain could not possibly be more than 1/2 the amount of atoms in the universe. Therefore, if each connection requires many atoms, it is impossible that the connections could exceed the number of atoms in the universe.įurthermore, the amount of potential connections could not exceed the amount of atoms in the universe. If we assume that each connection is made of a dendrite/axon connection, then each connection requires many atoms. The average number of connections in the human brain does not exceed the amount of atoms in the universe.

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