White House Unveils BRAIN Initiative

President Barack Obama proposed a new research initiative designed to further study and better understand, treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders, including Alzheimer disease, traumatic brain injury, autism, posttraumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.¹

Although details were lacking, the White House noted the goal of the BRAIN-Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies-Initiative includes the development and application of neuroimaging technologies to gain better insight into neural circuits and brains cells.  Funding will be provided by the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Science Foundation in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget, as well as foundations and private research institutions.

“There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked,” President Obama said in a press conference, “and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember.  And that knowledge could be-will be-transformative.”²

References:

References1.    Collins F, Prabhakar A. BRAIN Initiative Challenges Researchers to Unlock Mysteries of Human Mind. White House Blog. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/02/brain-initiative-challenges-researchers-unlock-mysteries-human-mind. April 2, 2013.
2.    The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. Remarks by the President on the BRAIN Initiative and American Innovation. Office of the Press Secretary. The White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/02/remarks-president-brain-initiative-and-american-innovation. April 2, 2013.