14 DAY TRIAL // Despite exhaustive research and experimenting, the scientific community is still a long way from figuring out what the human brain is all about and what its daily working agenda boils down to.
Back in April 2013, it was announced that, in an attempt to solve this puzzle, the Obama administration would launch the so-called Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.
This research project aims to map the activity of each and every neuron in the human brain and is expected to take about 10 years to complete. Needless to say, it will come with a really impressive price tag.
Thus, it was not too long ago that the US National Institutes of Health awarded $46 million (€36 million) to President Obama's BRAIN initiative, Nature reports.
Information shared with the public says the money will be split between 58 grants ranging from $300,000 (€237,000) to $1.9 million (€1.5 million) and will support the work of over 100 scientists.
The researchers awarded these grants are expected to get to work developing new tools to keep tabs on brain activity. Of these tools, one referred to as a wearable PET scanner should make it possible to monitor brain activity in real-life conditions.
As detailed by the National Institutes of Health, the beneficiaries of these grants will also look into optogenetics, which is a technology that boils down to using light to control brain activity.
Commenting on the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, neurobiologist Cornelia Bargmann said, “It’s a new era of exploration, an exploration of inner space instead of outer space. We feel a little like Galileo looking at the sky through his telescope for the first time.”
It is estimated that, all in all, the BRAIN Initiative will cost the country a whopping $4.5 billion (approximately €3.5 billion).