BRAIN Initiative

In 2013 President Barack Obama announced the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative NeurotechnologiesInitiative (BRAIN) Initiative, a broad new research effort widely compare to the human genome project. The goal of the project is to map the interactions of circuits thought the human brain and will be a joint effort between the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.  This initiative was relatively surprising in that the president had never before voiced interest in neuroscience as a matter of public health. Fittingly, the actual idea for the project originated among researchers at the Kavli Foundation in Chicheley, UK. Their idea was to record electrical impulses from thousands to millions of neurons simultaneously in order to get a true understanding of the genesis of thought within the brain. This gives some idea of the project's ambitious scope as current technology only allows the us to record the electrical activity of a single neuron at a time.  Thus initial goals for the project center around the development of novel technologies in order to handle the virtually infinite complexity of the human brain.

Brain architecture involves the interactions of trillions of synapses with billions of cell bodies across multiple regions of the brain. There is also a temporal element as brain circuits continually change as the result of developmental, neural activity, and aging.  That being said researchers are taking a diverse approach towards the ultimate goal of greater insight into the nervous system and have laid out 7 primary priorities to be met by 2025 including:

1. Discovering diversity: Identify and provide experimental access to the different brain cell types to determine their roles in health and disease
2. Maps at multiple scales: Generate circuit diagrams that vary in resolution from synapses to the whole brain
3. The brain in action: Produce a dynamic picture of the functioning brain by developing and applying improved methods for large-scale monitoring of neural activity
4. Demonstrating causality: Link brain activity to behavior with precise interventional tools that change neural circuit dynamics.
5. Identifying fundamental principles: Produce conceptual foundations for understanding the biological basis of mental processes through development of new theoretical and data analysis tools
6. Advancing human neuroscience: Develop innovative technologies to understand the human brain and treat its disorders; create and support integrated human brain research networks
7. From BRAIN Initiative to the brain: Integrate new technological and conceptual approaches produced in Goals #1-6 to discover how dynamic patterns of neural activity are transformed into cognition, emotion, perception, and action in health and disease

Ultimately goal seven is the overall impetus of the project as it is structured to coordinate the collaborative efforts of different research amongst various fronts in order to achieve its goal.

**Further Readings:**

1. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/1852982
2. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2014.0164
3. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ja4118347
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627319300510

1. ↑ Markoff, J., & Gorman, J. (2013, April 4). *Obama to Unveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain*. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/science/obama-to-unveil-initiative-to-map-the-human-brain.html
2. ↑ Shen, H. (2013). Neurotechnology: BRAIN storm. *Nature*, *503*(7474), 26–28. https://doi-org.williamjames.idm.oclc.org/10.1038/503026a
3. ↑ Mott, M. C., Gordon, J. A., & Koroshetz, W. J. (2018). The NIH BRAIN Initiative: Advancing neurotechnologies, integrating disciplines. *PLoS Biology*, *16*(11), e3000066. https://doi-org.williamjames.idm.oclc.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000066
4. ↑ *BRAIN 2025 Report | Brain Initiative*. (2014, June 5). Braininitiative.Nih.Gov. https://braininitiative.nih.gov/strategic-planning/brain-2025-report