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Global Research, October 08, 2013
Region: USA
Theme: Science and Medicine
The
following text is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the National
Institutes of Heath BRAIN Working Group. This project has broad implications.
It supports the development technologies to manipulate the human brain. It has
military applications including the development of Neuroweapons. (GR Ed. M.
Ch.)
On April 2, 2013, President Obama
launched the BRAIN Initiative to “accelerate the development and application of
new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of
the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits
interact at the speed of thought.” In response to this Grand Challenge, NIH
convened a working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH, to
develop a rigorous plan for achieving this scientific vision. To ensure a swift
start, the NIH Director asked the group to deliver an interim report identifying
high priority research areas that should be considered for the BRAIN Initiative
NIH funding in Fiscal Year 2014. These areas of priority are reflected in this
report and, ultimately, will be incorporated into the working group’s broader
scientific plan detailing a larger vision, timelines and milestones.
The goals voiced in the charge from
the President and from the NIH Director are bold and ambitious. The working
group agreed that in its initial stages, the best way to enable these goals is
to accelerate technology development, as reflected in the name of the BRAIN
Initiative: “Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies.”
The focus is not on technology per se, but on the development and use of tools
for acquiring fundamental insight about how the nervous system functions in
health and disease. In addition, since this initiative is only one part of the
NIH’s substantial investment in basic and translational neuroscience, these
technologies were evaluated for their potential to accelerate and advance other
areas of neuroscience as well.
In analyzing these goals and the
current state of neuroscience, the working group identified the analysis of
circuits of interacting neurons as being particularly rich in opportunity, with
potential for revolutionary advances. Truly understanding a circuit requires
identifying and characterizing the component cells, defining their synaptic
connections with one another, observing their dynamic patterns of activity in
vivo during behavior, and perturbing these patterns to test their significance.
It also requires an understanding of the algorithms that govern information
processing within a circuit, and between interacting circuits in the brain as a
whole. With these considerations in mind, the working group consulted
extensively with the scientific community to evaluate challenges and
opportunities in the field. Over the past four months, the working group met
seven times and held workshops with invited experts to discuss technologies in
chemistry and molecular biology; electrophysiology and optics; structural
neurobiology; computation, theory, and data analysis; and human neuroscience (a
full list of speakers and topics can be found in Appendix A). Workshop
discussions addressed the value of appropriate experimental systems, animal and
human models, and behavioral analysis. Each workshop included opportunity for
public comments, which were valuable for considering the perspectives of
patient advocacy groups, physicians, and members of the lay public.
Although we emphasize that this is
an interim report, which will develop with much additional advice before June
2014, certain themes have already emerged that should become core principles
for the NIH BRAIN Initiative.
- See more at:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/brain-research-through-advancing-innovative-neurotechnologies-brain/5353465#sthash.vRMkbnyX.dpuf
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