Obama launches brain mapping initiative
US: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced a $100 million
project to map the intricate inner mysteries of the human brain,
targeting cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“The most powerful computer in the world isn’t nearly as intuitive as
the one we’re born with,” Obama said at the White House.
“There’s this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked. And the BRAIN
initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to
get a dynamic picture of the brain in action,” Obama said. The research
initiative, financed with $100 million of Obama’s budget that will be
unveiled next week, will seek to find new ways to treat, cure and
prevent brain disorders like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.
Researchers will try to make complex pictures of the inner brain that
show how individual cells and neural circuits work and interact and
examine how the brain records, uses and retrieves vast amounts of
information.
The BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies) initiative will be run by the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the
National Science Foundation.
AFP
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