Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: In 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began funding an ambitious research program, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, with the singular focus of advancing our understanding of brain circuits though development and application of breakthrough neurotechnologies.As we approach the halfway mark of this 10-year effort aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of information processing in the human brain, it is timely to review the progress and the future trajectory of BRAIN Initiative research.Throughout history, new tools have driven scientific revolutions in multiple disciplines [1].Unraveling how the human brain processes information and supports a diverse spectrum of behaviors requires such a scientific revolution and an arsenal of next generation tools to be deployed by neuroscientists across the basic, translational, and clinical landscapes.Capturing the full record of neural activity or what has been called a "brain activity map" across spatial and temporal domains is a daunting technological challenge that needs to be met to achieve a more complete understanding of fundamental and pathological brain processes [2].Launched on April 2, 2013, the key goal of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is to develop innovative technologies to interrogate how the brain's cells and circuits interact at the speed of thought and, ultimately, to reveal the complex links between brain function and behavior.Because brain architecture stretches from the scale of molecular interactions at the trillions of synapses to the billions of cell bodies that connect to form local networks that then integrate across multiple brain regions, the challenges are extraordinary.In addition to these spatial scales, there are temporal scales, as brain circuits are not static but continually change as a result of neural activity, developmental stage, and aging.Despite this complexity, the technologies emerging from the BRAIN Initiative are opening new doors to decipher how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information.They have the potential to facilitate a quantum leap toward understanding brain function and its disruption in disease, making circuit abnormalities the basis of diagnostics and the normalization of circuit function the target of future intervention in neuro/mental/substance-abuse disorders.
Source: PLoS Biology
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,500
OpenAlex ID: W2902014089