How Will the Brain Mapping Project Affect Your Business?
Neuroscience is certainly making some waves out there. You may
have heard about the $100 million brain mapping project announced by
President Obama in April this year.
Its official name is Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies or, rather appropriately, BRAIN for short.
What exactly is it and what will be the implications for neuroscience and the global business community?
What is the BRAIN Project?
The BRAIN project will map the brain in a similar way that the "Human Genome Project" mapped all human DNA.
It is being funded by the President's 2014 budget and launched with aid of the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation.
Private partners in the project include the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Kavli Foundation and Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Similar projects are happening elsewhere around the world. With the one-billion euro The Human Brain Project already underway in Europe and the Brainnetome initiative in China, it seems like all the superpowers are getting interested in the brain!
Main Purposes of BRAIN
The project aims to better understand thinking, learning and memory processes by accelerating the development of technologies that can detail the brain at a microscopic level and help explain how the complex neural circuits interact; how we process, use, store and retrieve information, and the connections between the brain and behaviour, lie at the centre of the project.
Obama pointed to the fact that "Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy" and there's no disguising the economic element to the BRAIN project. One of its key purposes is to create jobs and to boost the economy.
It is also being touted as a vehicle to provide potential breakthroughs for medical science, with disorders like PTSD and diseases like Alzheimer's and autism high on the radar of public concern.
The Effects on Neuroscience
The field of neuroscience has made great strides in recent years and is learning more about brain function and its connections to human behaviour with every passing week. High-res imaging technologies are allowing us to learn how the brain is structurally and functionally connected.
However, the human brain remains largely a mystery and there is so little known with certainty.
This project will undoubtedly shine a big light on the field and uncover new and better ways to research the brain and interpret the data.
Technologies such as new optical methods for imaging activity deep within the brain and which provide better ways to assess biological measures beyond electrical activity, are already being looked at. This should allow us to more completely measure brain activity.
Also, with most testing in neuroscience currently done on animals, there will be research into non-invasive methods for use on human subjects.
All of this, together with more computing power to interpret the new data, should open the door for important new discoveries.
... And Your Business?
Increasingly the findings of neuroscience are being applied to the business arena. The simple fact is that the more we learn about human behaviour the better we can lead organizations.
The global business community, therefore, should expect to see new approaches and initiatives springing up as a result of the global attention on the human brain and the boost it gives to the field of neuroscience.
The areas of accelerated leadership and teaming, organizational performance, change management and marketing especially, will likely see big changes in coming years.
Its official name is Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies or, rather appropriately, BRAIN for short.
What exactly is it and what will be the implications for neuroscience and the global business community?
What is the BRAIN Project?
The BRAIN project will map the brain in a similar way that the "Human Genome Project" mapped all human DNA.
It is being funded by the President's 2014 budget and launched with aid of the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation.
Private partners in the project include the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Kavli Foundation and Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Similar projects are happening elsewhere around the world. With the one-billion euro The Human Brain Project already underway in Europe and the Brainnetome initiative in China, it seems like all the superpowers are getting interested in the brain!
Main Purposes of BRAIN
The project aims to better understand thinking, learning and memory processes by accelerating the development of technologies that can detail the brain at a microscopic level and help explain how the complex neural circuits interact; how we process, use, store and retrieve information, and the connections between the brain and behaviour, lie at the centre of the project.
Obama pointed to the fact that "Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy" and there's no disguising the economic element to the BRAIN project. One of its key purposes is to create jobs and to boost the economy.
It is also being touted as a vehicle to provide potential breakthroughs for medical science, with disorders like PTSD and diseases like Alzheimer's and autism high on the radar of public concern.
The Effects on Neuroscience
The field of neuroscience has made great strides in recent years and is learning more about brain function and its connections to human behaviour with every passing week. High-res imaging technologies are allowing us to learn how the brain is structurally and functionally connected.
However, the human brain remains largely a mystery and there is so little known with certainty.
This project will undoubtedly shine a big light on the field and uncover new and better ways to research the brain and interpret the data.
Technologies such as new optical methods for imaging activity deep within the brain and which provide better ways to assess biological measures beyond electrical activity, are already being looked at. This should allow us to more completely measure brain activity.
Also, with most testing in neuroscience currently done on animals, there will be research into non-invasive methods for use on human subjects.
All of this, together with more computing power to interpret the new data, should open the door for important new discoveries.
... And Your Business?
Increasingly the findings of neuroscience are being applied to the business arena. The simple fact is that the more we learn about human behaviour the better we can lead organizations.
The global business community, therefore, should expect to see new approaches and initiatives springing up as a result of the global attention on the human brain and the boost it gives to the field of neuroscience.
The areas of accelerated leadership and teaming, organizational performance, change management and marketing especially, will likely see big changes in coming years.
The team at NeuroPower is at the forefront of introducing new
approaches to organisational development through the findings of
neuroscience. We apply them to all types of businesses, developing high
performing teams and enhancing leadership. Find out more at our website:
http://www.neuropower.com.au.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_R_Stephens
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