The Brain Initiative

Have you ever admired the stars during a dark night? It’s humbling, astounding to see the vast darkness stretching out forever around you, with countless stars sparkling above. I’ve always admired astrophotography, capturing endless arrays of brilliant stars, far, far away. Now consider: our brains have more neurons than there are stars in the sky. Ralitsa Petrova calls the brain our “huge biological motherboard.” We’re still trying to understand how the “wiring” of that motherboard works.

The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is one concentrated effort by the National Institutes of Health to “revolutionize our understanding of the human brain.” In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, explorer Charlie Marlow describes his childhood fascination with the empty parts of the map. I’m inspired with a similar curiosity- but for one of today’s greatest mysteries: that of the human brain. Scientists of the BRAIN Initiative have helped advance imagining techniques, now measuring brain activity in animals up to 3,000 times/second, invented technology to control prosthetic limbs in real time, and identified neurons responsible for torpor. Researchers are asking more difficult questions, such as: how do patterns of neural activity in the brain control thoughts, feelings, and movements? Progress in neuroscientific research can be credited to immense interdisciplinary effort, merging the work of neuroscientists, biologists, chemists, engineers, physicians.