Fact Box: BRAIN initiative
USA reveals US$100m research initiative “BRAIN” to understand the human brain
- Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN)
- Funding of an initial $100 million from the president’s fiscal 2014 budget
- 3 US government agencies involved: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation.
Objective:
- Understanding the human brain
- To discover new ways of understanding how the human brain works.
- To create pictures of the brain in order to understand how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.
- To devise better treatments for injuries and diseases of the brain.
US Govt. has described BRAIN as one of the administration’s “grand challenges”.
