BRAIN Initiative

Last updated

Understanding how the brain works is arguably one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time.

Contents

–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 Grand Challenge focused on revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain, and was developed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as part of a broader White House Neuroscience Initiative. [7] Inspired by the Human Genome Project, BRAIN aims to help researchers uncover the mysteries of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Participants in BRAIN and affiliates of the project include DARPA and IARPA as well as numerous private companies, universities, and other organizations in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Denmark. [8]

Background

The BRAIN Initiative reflects a number of influences, stemming back over a decade. Some of these include: planning meetings at the National Institutes of Health that led to the NIH's Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; [9] workshops at the National Science Foundation (NSF) on cognition, neuroscience, and convergent science, including a 2006 report on "Grand Challenges of Mind and Brain"; [10] reports from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, including "From Molecules to Mind: Challenges for the 21st Century," a report of a June 25, 2008 Workshop on Grand Challenges in Neuroscience.; [11] years of research and reports from scientists and professional societies; and congressional interest.

One important activity was the Brain Activity Map Project. In September 2011, molecular biologist Miyoung Chun of The Kavli Foundation organized a conference in London, at which scientists first put forth the idea of such a project. [4] [12] At subsequent meetings, scientists from US government laboratories, including members of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, along with representatives from Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm, discussed possibilities for a future government-led project. [2]

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 Executive Office of the President (EOP) was led by OSTP and included the following EOP staff: Philip Rubin, then Principal Assistant Director for Science and leader of the White House Neuroscience Initiative; Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation; Cristin Dorgelo, then Assistant Director for Grand Challenges, and later Chief of Staff at OSTP; and Carlos Peña, Assistant Director for Emerging Technologies and currently the Division Director for the Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, in the Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). [16] [17]

Announcement

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and President Barack Obama announcing the BRAIN Initiative BRAIN Initiative announcement.png
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and President Barack Obama announcing the BRAIN Initiative

On April 2, 2013, at a White House event, President Barack Obama announced The BRAIN Initiative, with proposed initial expenditures for fiscal year 2014 of approximately $110 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). [4] [5] [6] The President also directed the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to explore the ethical, legal, and societal implications raised by the initiative and by neuroscience in general. Additional commitments were also made by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and The Kavli Foundation. The NIH also announced the creation of a working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director, led by neuroscientists Cornelia Bargmann and William Newsome and with ex officio participation from DARPA and NSF, to help shape NIH's role in the BRAIN Initiative. NSF planned to receive advice from its directorate advisory committees, from the National Science Board, and from a series of meetings bringing together scientists in neuroscience and related areas. [4] [5] [6]

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 connectome", as well as new technologies that will have to be developed in the course of the project. [1] They indicated that initial studies might be done in Caenorhabditis elegans , followed by Drosophila , because of their comparatively simple neural circuits. Mid-term studies could be done in zebrafish, mice, and the Etruscan shrew, with studies ultimately to be done in primates and humans. They proposed the development of nanoparticles that could be used as voltage sensors that would detect individual action potentials, as well as nanoprobes that could serve as electrophysiological multielectrode arrays. In particular, they called for the use of wireless, noninvasive methods of neuronal activity detection, either utilizing microelectronic very-large-scale integration, or based on synthetic biology rather than microelectronics. In one such proposed method, enzymatically produced DNA would serve as a "ticker tape record" of neuronal activity, [1] [19] based on calcium ion-induced errors in coding by DNA polymerase. [20] Data would be analyzed and modeled by large scale computation. [1] A related technique proposed the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing for rapidly mapping neural connectivity. [21]

Timeline

The timeline proposed by the Working Group in 2014 is: [22]

Working group

The advisory committee is: [23]

Participants

As of December 2018, the BRAIN Initiative website lists the following participants and affiliates:

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 exabytes of data every year, presenting a significant technical barrier. [25] Most of the available high-resolution brain activity monitors are of limited use, as they must be invasively implanted surgically by opening the skull. [25] Parallels have been drawn to past large-scale government-led research efforts including the map of the human genome, the voyage to the moon, and the development of the atomic bomb. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuroscience</span> Scientific study of the nervous system

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, psychology, physics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, statistics, and mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia and neural circuits. The understanding of the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception, and consciousness has been described by Eric Kandel as the "epic challenge" of the biological sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuroscientist</span> Individual who studies neuroscience

A neuroscientist is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial cells and especially their behavioral, biological, and psychological aspect in health and disease.

Terrence Joseph Sejnowski is the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he directs the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory and is the director of the Crick-Jacobs center for theoretical and computational biology. He has performed pioneering research in neural networks and computational neuroscience.

Neuroinformatics is the field that combines informatics and neuroscience. Neuroinformatics is related with neuroscience data and information processing by artificial neural networks. There are three main directions where neuroinformatics has to be applied:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Rubin</span> American linguist

Philip E. Rubin is an American cognitive scientist, technologist, and science administrator known for raising the visibility of behavioral and cognitive science, neuroscience, and ethical issues related to science, technology, and medicine, at a national level. His research career is noted for his theoretical contributions and pioneering technological developments, starting in the 1970s, related to speech synthesis and speech production, including articulatory synthesis and sinewave synthesis, and their use in studying complex temporal events, particularly understanding the biological bases of speech and language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Science and Technology Council</span> Advisory body chaired by the president regarding US research and innovation policy

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is a council in the Executive Branch of the United States. It is designed to coordinate science and technology policy across the branches of federal government.

Emery Neal Brown is an American statistician, neuroscientist, and anesthesiologist. He is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and a practicing anesthesiologist at MGH. At MIT he is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and professor of computational neuroscience, the Associate Director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the Director of the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Graybiel</span> American neuroscientist

Ann Martin Graybiel is an Institute Professor and a faculty member in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. She is an expert on the basal ganglia and the neurophysiology of habit formation, implicit learning, and her work is relevant to Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, obsessive–compulsive disorder, substance abuse and other disorders that affect the basal ganglia.

The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a five-year project sponsored by sixteen components of the National Institutes of Health, split between two consortia of research institutions. The project was launched in July 2009 as the first of three Grand Challenges of the NIH's Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. On September 15, 2010, the NIH announced that it would award two grants: $30 million over five years to a consortium led by Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota, with strong contributions from Oxford University (FMRIB) and $8.5 million over three years to a consortium led by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of California Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Roskams</span> Canadian neuroscientist

Angela Jane Roskams is a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a joint appointment in Neurosurgery at the University of Washington. She is professor at the Centre for Brain Health at UBC, and directed the laboratory of neural regeneration and brain repair, before winding down her lab in 2015–16 to become Executive Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and a leader in the Open Science movement. After leading Strategy and Alliances for the Allen institute's multiple branches, she has become an influencer in the fields of neuroinformatics, public-private partnerships, and Open Data Sharing.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to brain mapping:

Paul W. Glimcher is an American neuroeconomist, neuroscientist, psychologist, economist, scholar, and entrepreneur. He is one of the foremost researchers focused on the study of human behavior and decision-making, and is known for his central role in founding and developing the field of neuroeconomics which takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how humans make decisions. Glimcher also founded the Institute for the Study of Decision Making at New York University (NYU), which he currently directs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Tsao</span> American neuroscientist

Doris Ying Tsao is an American systems neuroscientist and professor of biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was formerly on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology. She is recognized for pioneering the use of fMRI with single-unit electrophysiological recordings and for discovering the macaque face patch system for face perception. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the director of the T&C Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience. She won a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship in 2018. Tsao was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Yuste</span>

Rafael Yuste is a Spanish-American neurobiologist and one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative announced in 2013. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Partha Mitra</span>

Partha Pratim Mitra, Ph.D. is an Indian-American neuroscientist and computer scientist. He is the Crick-Clay Professor of Bioinformatics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Mitra currently holds the H.N. Mahabala Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research at IIT Madras and he is a Senior Visiting Researcher at RIKEN, Tokyo, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moran Cerf</span> American-French-Israeli neuroscientist and business professor

Moran Cerf is am American-French-Israeli neuroscientist, professor of business, investor and former white hat hacker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elba Serrano</span> Professor of Neuroscience

Elba E. Serrano is a neuroscientist and biophysicist who holds a position as a Regent's Professor of Biology at New Mexico State University.

Mackenzie W. Mathis, is an American neuroscientist and principal investigator at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Her lab investigates adaptive mechanisms in biological and artificial intelligence to inform adaptive AI systems and translational research in neurological diseases.

Ilana B. Witten is an American neuroscientist and professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. Witten studies the mesolimbic pathway, with a focus on the striatal neural circuit mechanisms driving reward learning and decision making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanaka Rajan</span> Indian-American computational neuroscientist

Kanaka Rajan is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Rajan trained in engineering, biophysics, and neuroscience, and has pioneered novel methods and models to understand how the brain processes sensory information. Her research seeks to understand how important cognitive functions — such as learning, remembering, and deciding — emerge from the cooperative activity of multi-scale neural processes, and how those processes are affected by various neuropsychiatric disease states. The resulting integrative theories about the brain bridge neurobiology and artificial intelligence.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Alivisatos, A. Paul; Chun, Miyoung; Church, George M.; Greenspan, Ralph J.; Roukes, Michael L.; Yuste, Rafael (June 2012). "The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics". Neuron . 74 (6): 970–974. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.06.006. PMC   3597383 . PMID   22726828.
  2. 1 2 3 Markoff, John (February 18, 2013). "Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain". New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Szalavitz, Maia (February 19, 2013). "Brain Map: President Obama Proposes First Detailed Guide of Human Brain Function". Time. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Markoff, John; Gorman, James (April 2, 2013). "Obama to unveil initiative to map the human brain". New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 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.
  6. 1 2 3 "Fact Sheet: BRAIN Initiative". White House Office of the Press Secretary. April 2, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
  7. "White House Neuroscience Initiative". Office of Science and Technology Policy . Retrieved 7 May 2015 via National Archives.
  8. 1 2 "Participants". The BRAIN Initiative.
  9. "NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research". nih.gov. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  10. "NSF Report on Grand Challenges of Mind and Brain". NSF publication. NSF. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  11. "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.
  12. Johnson, Carolyn (April 5, 2013). "Local Scientists on Brain Mapping Dream Team Reflect on Challenges, Opportunity". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  13. Olds, James L. (Apr–Jun 2011). "For an International Decade of the Mind". The Malaysian Journal of Medical Studies. 18 (2): 1–2. PMC   3216206 . PMID   22135580.
  14. "NSF Selects James Olds to head Biological Science Directorate". NSF.gov. NSF. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  15. "The Pentagon's Bionic Arm". CBS News. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  16. "White House OSTP staff". Office of Science and Technology Policy . Retrieved 9 May 2015 via National Archives.
  17. "BRAIN Grand Challenges Conference". IEEE EMBS. IEEE. Archived from the original on 2015-12-03. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  18. 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.
  19. Kording, Konrad (December 2011). "Of Toasters and Molecular Ticker Tapes". PLOS Computational Biology . 7 (12): e1002291. Bibcode:2011PLSCB...7E2291K. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002291. PMC   3248391 . PMID   22219716.
  20. Zamft, Bradley Michael; Marblestone, Adam H.; Kording, Konrad; Schmidt, Daniel; Martin-Alarcon, Daniel; Tyo, Keith; Boyden, Edward S.; Church, George (August 2012). "Measuring Cation Dependent DNA Polymerase Fidelity Landscapes by Deep Sequencing". PLOS ONE . 7 (8): e43876. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...743876Z. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043876 . PMC   3425509 . PMID   22928047.
  21. Zador, Anthony M.; Dubnau, Joshua; Oyibo, Hassana K.; Zhan, Huiqing; Cao, Gang; Peikon, Ian D. (2012). "Sequencing the Connectome". PLOS Biology. 10 (10): e1001411. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001411. PMC   3479097 . PMID   23109909.
  22. "NIH embraces bold, 12-year scientific vision for BRAIN Initiative". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 16 July 2015.
  23. "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.
  24. Wadman, Meredith (2016-09-20). "Big dreams emerge for big brain science projects". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  25. 1 2 Markoff, John (February 26, 2013). "Connecting the Neural Dots". New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2013.

Further reading