After years of speculation, Barack Obama has finally launched a multi-million dollar project aimed at solving the mysteries of the human brain. This arrives hot on the heels of a similar European venture, jointly promising huge advances in understanding over the coming years.
The BRAIN Initiative, which stands for 'Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies' is described by the US administration as "a bold new research effort to revolutionise our understanding of the human mind".
Addressing the audience of eminent neuroscientists at the White House launch, the President announced initial funding of $100 million and likened the project to previous 'grand challenges', such as mapping the human genome and walking on the moon. The main focus of the research is to accelerate the development and application of technologies in order to show, for the first time, how brain cells and neural circuits work. It is hoped this knowledge will help to develop effective ways of treating brain injuries and many other neurological conditions.
2013 was an exciting year for brain science, when in January of that year the European Commission announced the Human Brain Project (HBP) as one of its flagship programmes.
With over €1 billion of EU funding, this pan-european venture aims to produce computational models of the brain, working up in scale from the cellular level. HBP will analyse and unify vast quantities of human brain data, with a key goal being to map and understand the brain's critical vulnerabilities to injury and inform future treatments.
These exciting projects are just getting started, so we can't know what discoveries the future holds. Although the two enterprises could be seen as rivals, in reality any progress made by both should complement the other.
Read more about the BRAIN Initiative on the Brain Initiative website
Read more about the Human Brain Project
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