Brain Mapping... the Next Big Thing
Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:58
“Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy.” Obama
When I first heard that statement my reaction was to fact check...in other words... Google it!
Perhaps that statement from the President during the State of the Union was not 100% accurate
depending on how you look at the numbers but there is no denying that the Human Genome
Project has been a great investment. Will brain mapping be the same?
What exactly is brain mapping? I am not a scientist so I will not attempt to describe the intricate
details. However, I believe it is important to understand what it is and what the findings could
potentially mean for us as individuals, for healthcare providers, and for healthcare systems as a
whole. The human brain has over 100 billion neurons and trillions of connections between
them. Mapping out the brain will prove to be quite a task but the hope is to discover what drives
thinking and behavior and shed some light on the many neurological diseases we are faced with
every day. The Obama administration and the National Institute of Health have agreed to issue
a $100 million investment to map the brain called the Brain Research through Advancing
Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative .
This audacious project will develop and use tools that will allow researchers to monitor and
record the connections made by the neurons. The technology required to monitor the trillions of
connections being transmitted in the brain is being developed as the project moves forward.
Laboratories such as the Van Essen Lab from Washington University School of Medicine in St.
Louis, MO are developing a software to record and analyze the data. Caret, developed by Van
Essen Lab, is one of the main tools being used to help with the BRAIN Initiative. Caret has two
main programs caret5 and caret_command. Caret5 is an interactive tool used to manipulate and
view neuroimaging data and caret_command allows the processing of the data. At this point our
current technology may not seem advanced enough to undertake this project. Although it seems
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Brain Mapping... the Next Big Thing
Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:58
an overwhelming task, great discoveries are made by takings risks. We will improve technology
in general by trial and error so this initiative can only improve our current knowledge and
technology.
The benefits of brain mapping may take years to trickle down to us as individuals or to the
provider level, as the Human Genome Project did. This project will provide a wealth of
information and much needed knowledge on the most important and complicated part of our
body. Being able to understand the connections within our brain will give us an insight as to why
things happen and how we can manipulate those connections to improve our health. Current
technology allows us to control certain things, for example prosthetic limbs, but we are very
limited to the little we know and understand of the brain. Once we are able to understand all the
connections we should have more control over how those connections are made. Ideally we will
be able to control and make new connections as needed. So when a prosthetic limb is attached
the individual will not only be able to control certain functions but actually have full control over
it, which will be amazing!
The research and findings from this project will also give healthcare providers insight when it
comes to diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer's and PTSD, among others. Understanding
how certain diseases function within the brain will allow researchers to explore different ways to
stop them from growing. We can expect the information could lead to better prevention
screenings, new treatment options, cures and overall reduced healthcare costs.
At this point brain mapping is in its infancy but hopes are high! As the project evolves so will the
technology used. The more data we collect and share with other scientists the more we will be
able to get out of this research so hopefully sharing will be a big part of this project. Hopefully
understanding how our brain works will lead to cures for Alzheimer's, dementia, and PTSD and
many other diseases giving people better, longer lives!
~ Zoraida Kincaid
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