February 19, 2013
Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain
John Markoff in the New York Times:
The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.
The project, which the administration has been looking to unveil as early as March, will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness.
Scientists with the highest hopes for the project also see it as a way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses.
Moreover, the project holds the potential of paving the way for advances in artificial intelligence.
The project, which could ultimately cost billions of dollars, is expected to be part of the president’s budget proposal next month.
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 08:22 AM | Permalink
Comments
Thanks to John Horgan:
http://blog.chabris.com/2013/02/how-much-bam-for-buck-and-other.html?spref=tw
Posted by: Louise Gordon | Feb 19, 2013 7:57:35 PM
Focus on the brain and brain-mapping as though it might provide some sort of final word on our 'mental' capabilities as a species is becoming increasingly shortsighted in view of studies of behaviour-altering parasites in our environment; toxoplamsa gondi, to mention a single example. We are surrounded and inhabited by any number of entities and substances which have incalculable effects on our brains and behaviour.
And then there's increasing evidence of the vital importance of thousands of varieties of bacteria in our guts – outnumbering indigenous cells 10:1 – which play a major role in brain activity, human moods, emotions, metabolism, through the incessant chemical signals microbes send throughout the body.
To focus on the brain in an attempt to understand 'human nature' [or whatever it is Obama's multi-billion dollar research program seeks to study] is really and truly to miss the boat.
Homo sapiens [sapiens?] is a part of the environment and the environment is in us. US research would best be oriented towards discovering the environmental and physiological factors that play roles in human behavior, which go way beyond the highly regarded brain.
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Posted by: Dana | Feb 21, 2013 5:21:34 PM
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