Brainy computer .... within all of us

A computer inside our brain is better than what IBM, Microsoft, Apple or anybody else can ever build ... but unfortunately, we have dumped it on the rubbish heap.  Gotta wonder how many more such priceless devices are inside us and we don't know it.

From UNC HealthCare:
UNC neuroscientists discover new ‘mini-neural computer’   in the brain.
Dendrites, the branch-like projections of neurons, were once thought to be passive wiring in the brain. But now researchers at UNC have shown that dendrites actively process information, multiplying the brain’s computing power. The finding could help researchers better understand neurological disorders.
Dendrites, the branch-like projections of neurons, were once thought to be passive wiring in the brain. But now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that these dendrites do more than relay information from one neuron to the next. They actively process information, multiplying the brain’s computing power.

“Suddenly, it’s as if the processing power of the brain is much greater than we had originally thought,” said Spencer Smith, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine.

His team’s findings, published October 27 in the journal Nature, could change the way scientists think about long-standing scientific models of how neural circuitry functions in the brain, while also helping researchers better understand neurological disorders........