BRAIN Interim Report

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1wMEnylMrJcTlZEZXVpMkV3UDQ/edit

The Interim report for the BRAIN initiative came out yesterday. This report talks about the initial goals of the BRAIN Initiative, mainly focusing on short-term projects for 2014. There will be a final report out in June.

The report draws the focus of the BRAIN Initiative to questions about neural coding, neural circuit dynamics and neuromodulation. The analysis of circuits is "particularly rich in opportunity, with potential for revolutionary advances" -- we currently think that the activity and modulation of large ensembles of neurons are what underpin mental experience and behavior. 

Understanding these questions is daunting -- the human mind is built from a unimaginable tangle of almost a 100 billion neurons. In order to understand this complexity will require new tools to record from a large number of neurons, new analysis techniques that can make sense of the "big data" that will be generated, and new computational theory that puts it all together.

The organizers recognize the limitations of a purely human-based approach to studying neuroscience, and that both technical and ethical issues require that the BRAIN Initiative include appropriate model organisms. They emphasize a diversity of approaches and organisms, citing different advantages for all of the different model organisms in neuroscience -- rhesus macaques (evolutionary proximity to humans), mice (mammalian, genetic tools), zebrafish (vertabrate, optical tools), worms and flies (small nervous systems, genetic tools), and molluscs, crabs and leeches (defined nervous system, electrophysiology). Other species will also highlight important brain functions through their particular niche -- i.e. songbirds are the only animals (besides humans) that have instructed vocal learning.

They summarize 9 "high-priority" research areas for 2014:
1. Generate a Census of Cell Types. 
2. Create Structural Maps of the Brain.
3. Develop New Large-Scale Recording Capabilities.
4. Develop a Suite of Tools for Circuit Manipulation.
5. Link Neuronal Activity to Behavior.
6. Integrate Theory, Modeling, Statistics, and Computation with Experimentation.
7. Delineate Mechanisms Underlying Human Imaging Technologies.
8. Create Mechanisms to Enable Collection of Human Data.
9. Disseminate Knowledge and Training.

This is a great start for what could be a revolutionary initiative! The current level of funding is only $40 million, which is less than 1% of what just the NIH gives to neuroscience research currently ($5.5 B). There is hopefully more money to come -- $3 B was floated for the next few years.