Trouble is, there's no compass.
Using the latest imaging technology, like MRIs and PET scans, he and fellow researchers hope to eventually illuminate mysteries of thought, movement and the progression of disease. Sometime in the future, doctors will use a combination of gene mapping and brain mapping to determine whether someone has a genetic predisposition to a disease and then monitor the brain regions where changes are anticipated. However, researchers must first chart the brain, no two specimens of which are alike. A consortium of federal agencies is funding the project with a five-year grant that runs out in 1998. Once researchers nail down the brain's anatomy, they'll move on to map the processes associated with movement, speech, sensation, thought and memory.