By means of bites like MB GB what may be the memory capacity of a normal human brain

Question

By means of bites like MB GB what may be the memory capacity of a normal human brain

Answer 1

This is not possible to know, really - because the way which our brain stores information is complex and poorly-understood.

But, there are an estimated 100 billion (10^11) neurons in the brain, each potentially capably of forming a synaptic connection with every other neurons - meaning there are 10^22 possible synapses.

Current thinking suggests that one synapse might approximate to one "bit" of information (it is almost certainly much more complex than that, but this is probably a good approximation).

One byte is 8 bits, so this is 1.25 x 10^21 bytes, or 1.25 zettabytes, or 1.25 million terabytes of information storage.

Other estimates state that at any one time, there are around 100 trillion (10^14) synapses in the human brain - so this would give a more modest memory capacity of 12.5 terabytes.

But to put all of this into perspective - the human brain receives about 72 gigabytes of information from the eyes *every second*, and it successfully processes *all* of that information. And that's just from the eyes.

From calculations based on the processing speed of the human retina, and up-scaling that to the number of neurons in the brain, we can estimate that the human brain performs about 100 million MIPS (Million computer Instructions Per Second ). This means that the brain is like a 168,0000 MHz Pentium computer.

I'd say the amazing thing about the human brain is not just it's "hard drive size", but also it's processing speed.

Answer 2

Whatever it is, the brain is still the cheapest random-access large capacity storage device that can be mass produced by unskilled labor.

Anon...

Answer 3

i think it is 100-700 terabytes

Answer 4

I have no earthly idea, but that is a very good question. Something else I've thought about, as we acquire new information does the brain kind of delete un-needed information in order to make room? I'm definitely putting this question on my watch list. I can't wait to see what kind of answers you get!

Answer 5

Mega Glia Cells (MGC) and Giga Glia Cell (GGC).

Answer 6

"Robert Birge (Syracuse University) who studies the storage of data in

proteins, estimated in 1996 that the memory capacity of the brain was

between one and ten terabytes, with a most likely value of 3

terabytes. Such estimates are generally based on counting neurons and

assuming each neuron holds 1 bit. Bear in mind that the brain has

better algorithms for compressing certain types of information than

computers do."

http://www.sizes.com/people/brain.htm