BRAIN Initiative
Understanding how the brain works is arguably one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time.
–Alivisatos et al.[1]
The White House BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) is a collaborative, public-private research initiative announced by the Obama administration on April 2, 2013, with the goal of supporting the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of brain function.[2][3][4][5][6]
This activity is a
Participants in BRAIN and affiliates of the project include
Background
The BRAIN Initiative reflects a number of influences, stemming back over a decade. Some of these include: planning meetings at the
One important activity was the
Other influences included the interdisciplinary "Decade of the Mind" project led by James L. Olds, who is currently the Assistant Director for Biological Sciences at NSF,[13][14] and the "Revolutionizing Prosthetics" project at DARPA, led by Dr. Geoffrey Ling and shown on 60 Minutes in April 2009.[15]
Development of the plan for the BRAIN Initiative within the
Announcement
On April 2, 2013, at a White House event, President
Experimental approaches
News reports said the research would map the dynamics of neuron activity in mice and other animals[3] and eventually the tens of billions of neurons in the human brain.[18]
In a 2012 scientific commentary outlining experimental plans for a more limited project, Alivisatos et al. outlined a variety of specific experimental techniques that might be used to achieve what they termed a "functional
Timeline
The timeline proposed by the Working Group in 2014 is:[22]
- 2016–2020: technology development and validation
- 2020–2025: application of those technologies in an integrated fashion to make fundamental new discoveries about the brain
Working group
The advisory committee is:[23]
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Participants
As of December 2018, the BRAIN Initiative website lists the following participants and affiliates:
- National Institutes of Health (Alliance Member)
- National Science Foundation (Alliance Member)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration(Alliance Member)
- Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) (Alliance Member)
- White House BRAIN Initiative (Alliance Affiliate)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(B.I. Participant)
- Simons Foundation (Alliance Member)
- National Photonics Initiative (B.I. Participant)
- Allen Institute for Brain Science (Alliance Member)
- Janelia/Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Alliance Affiliate)
- Neurotechnology Architecting Network (B.I. Participant)
- Pacific Northwest Neuroscience Neighborhood (B.I. Participant)
- University of California System Cal-BRAIN (B.I. Participant)
- University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute (B.I. Participant)
- Blackrock Microsystems (B.I. Participant)
- GlaxoSmithKline(B.I. Participant)
- Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (B.I. Participant)
- Boston University Center for Systems Neuroscience (B.I. Participant)
- General Electric (B.I. Participant)
- Boston Scientific (B.I. Participant)
- Carnegie Mellon University BrainHub (B.I. Participant)
- NeuroNexus (B.I. Participant)
- Medtronic (B.I. Participant)
- Pediatric Brain Foundation (B.I. Participant)
- University of Texas System UT Neuroscience (B.I. Participant)
- University of Arizona Center for Innovation in Brain Science (B.I. Participant)
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies (B.I. Participant)
- Second Sight (B.I. Participant)
- Kavli Foundation (Alliance Member)
- University of Utah Neurosciences Gateway (B.I. Participant)
- Blackrock Microsystems (B.I. Participant)
- Ripple (B.I. Participant)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (B.I. Participant)
- NeuroPace (B.I. Participant)
- Google (B.I. Participant)
- Inscopix (B.I. Participant)
- Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (B.I. Participant)
- Brain Canada Foundation (B.I. Participant)
- Denmark's Lundbeck Foundation (B.I. Participant).[8]
Reactions
Scientists offered differing views of the plan. Neuroscientist John Donoghue said that the project would fill a gap in neuroscience research between, on the one hand, activity measurements at the level of brain regions using methods such as fMRI, and, on the other hand, measurements at the level of single cells.[3] Psychologist Ed Vul expressed concern, however, that the initiative would divert funding from individual investigator studies.[3] Neuroscientist Donald Stein expressed concern that it would be a mistake to begin by spending money on technological methods, before knowing exactly what would be measured.[4] Physicist Michael Roukes argued instead that methods in nanotechnology are becoming sufficiently mature to make the time right for a brain activity map.[4] Neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás declared at the first Rockefeller meeting "What has happened here is magnificent, never before in neuroscience have I seen so much unity in such a glorious purpose."[24]
The projects face great logistical challenges. Neuroscientists estimated that the project would generate 300
See also
- Allen Brain Atlas
- Blue Brain Project
- BrainMaps
- Brain Mapping Foundation
- Brain/MINDS
- China Brain Project
- Decade of the Brain
- Decade of the Mind
- G20 World Brain Mapping & Therapeutic Scientific Summit
- Human Connectome Project
- List of animals by number of neurons
- List of neuroscience databases
- Organization for Human Brain Mapping
- Outline of brain mapping
- Outline of the human brain
- Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics
- SpiNNaker
References
- ^ PMID 22726828.
- ^ a b c Markoff, John (February 18, 2013). "Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain". New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Szalavitz, Maia (February 19, 2013). "Brain Map: President Obama Proposes First Detailed Guide of Human Brain Function". Time. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f Markoff, John; Gorman, James (April 2, 2013). "Obama to unveil initiative to map the human brain". New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- ^ a b c Fox, Maggie (April 2, 2013). "White House pitches brain mapping project". NBC News. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Fact Sheet: BRAIN Initiative". White House Office of the Press Secretary. April 2, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- National Archives.
- ^ a b "Participants". The BRAIN Initiative. Archived from the original on 2021-11-12. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
- ^ "NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research". nih.gov. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
- ^ "NSF Report on Grand Challenges of Mind and Brain". NSF publication. NSF. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ "Workshop on Grand Challenges in Neuroscience". Institute of Medicine. National Academies of Science. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ Johnson, Carolyn (April 5, 2013). "Local Scientists on Brain Mapping Dream Team Reflect on Challenges, Opportunity". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- PMID 22135580.
- ^ "NSF Selects James Olds to head Biological Science Directorate". NSF.gov. NSF. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ "The Pentagon's Bionic Arm". CBS News. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- National Archives.
- ^ "BRAIN Grand Challenges Conference". IEEE EMBS. IEEE. Archived from the original on 2015-12-03. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
- ^ Human brains average 86 billion neurons by a recent estimate. Source: How many neurons make a human brain? Billions fewer than we thought. Notes & Theories. The Guardian. Feb 28, 2012.
- PMID 22219716.
- PMID 22928047.
- PMID 23109909.
- ^ "NIH embraces bold, 12-year scientific vision for BRAIN Initiative". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 16 July 2015.
- ^ "Advisory Committee to the Director" (PDF). Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Working Group. National Institutes of Health. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ Wadman, Meredith (2016-09-20). "Big dreams emerge for big brain science projects". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ a b Markoff, John (February 26, 2013). "Connecting the Neural Dots". New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
Further reading
- "The impact of the NIH BRAIN Initiitve", Nature Methods editorial, November 2018.