s******9
发帖数: 283 | 1 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/03/06/science.1236
The Brain Activity Map
A. Paul Alivisatos1,*,
Miyoung Chun2,
George M. Church3,
Karl Deisseroth4,
John P. Donoghue5,
Ralph J. Greenspan6,
Paul L. McEuen7,
Michael L. Roukes8,
Terrence J. Sejnowski9,*,
Paul S. Weiss10,
Rafael Yuste11,*
Abstract
Researchers propose building technologies to enable comprehensive mapping
and control of neural circuit activity.
Neuroscientists have made impressive advances in understanding the
microscale function of single neurons and the macroscale activity of the
human brain. One can probe molecular and biophysical aspects of individual
neurons and also view the human brain in action with magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). However, the mechanisms of
perception, cognition, and action remain mysterious because they emerge from
the real-time interactions of large sets of neurons in densely
interconnected, widespread neural circuits.
It is time for a large-scale effort in neuroscience to create and apply a
new generation of tools to enable the functional mapping and control of
neural activity in brains with cellular and millisecond resolution. This
initiative, the Brain Activity Map (BAM), could put neuroscientists in a
position to understand how the brain produces perception, action, memories,
thoughts, and consciousness and be a major step toward a complete
understanding of brain function and dysfunction. The BAM project will seek
to fill the gap in our knowledge of brain activity at the circuit level, a
scale between single-neuron and whole-brain function (1–3). It will
therefore provide a bridge that will enable recording and manipulating the
activity of entire circuits, networks, and possibly eventually whole brains
with single-neuron precision.
The BAM project is essentially a technology-building research program with
three goals: (i) to build new classes of tools that can simultaneously image
or record the individual activity of most, or even all, neurons in a brain
circuit, including those containing millions of neurons; (ii) to create
tools to control the activity of every neuron individually in these circuits
, because testing function requires intervention; and (iii) to understand
circuit function. The third goal will require developing methods for storing
, managing, and sharing large-scale imaging and physiology data, as well as
developing methods for analyzing data and modeling underlying neuronal
circuits, leading to emergent principles of brain function. It will be
carried out by providing access to all investigators, including cellular,
systems, and computational neuroscientists, to the methods and data needed
for developing, testing, and verifying theories of how the brain operates.
The BAM project will be timely; we perceive a critical coalescence of
technologies from diverse fields. Model organisms could be a cornerstone of
this project, as a means to extend these technologies to the human brain in
a minimally invasive fashion. Invertebrates such as the worm, fly, or leech
are ideal for testing new technologies, where the results can be compared to
extensive, growing bodies of data on the functions of identified neurons
and smaller-scale circuits. They could also be used to spearhead new
capabilities for data acquisition and analysis and for theory development.
Small vertebrates, such as the zebrafish, mouse, and rat, may permit
stepwise scaling up of new technologies to achieve increasingly greater
depth, temporal resolution, chemical sensitivity, and number of recorded
neurons. With advances in technology, as yet unexplored systems could also
become accessible. Finally, in parallel with the animal work, from the
outset, we will seek to develop techniques to perform related measurements
and controls in human scientific or clinical applications.
We envision the BAM project as an open, international collaboration of
scientists, engineers, and theoreticians, throughout academia and industry,
with work carried out both by individual laboratories and in new collective
efforts. Within 5 years, it should be possible to monitor and/or to control
tens of thousands of neurons, and by year 10 that number will increase at
least 10-fold. By year 15, observing 1 million neurons with markedly reduced
invasiveness should be possible. With 1 million neurons, scientists will be
able to evaluate the function of the entire brain of the zebrafish or
several areas from the cerebral cortex of the mouse.
In parallel, we envision developing nanoscale neural probes that can locally
acquire, process, and store accumulated data. Networks of “intelligent”
nanosystems would be capable of providing specific responses to externally
applied signals, or to their own readings of brain activity. These, together
with noninvasive optical methods, could have clinical applications for
diagnosing or treating neuropsychiatric disorders, and restoring lost
functions after stroke, as well as helping to generate theories of human
cognition and behavior and brain disease at a neural network scale of
explanation.
Many of the most devastating human brain disorders, such as epilepsy,
depression, schizophrenia, autism, and dementia, may emerge when large-scale
interactions within the brain are disrupted. Similarly, voluntary movements
are lost when strokes, cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or
spinal cord injury disconnect the brain and body. We believe that tools and
knowledge created by the BAM project may lead to new approaches to rebalance
disordered networks and treat such diseases. Early studies have already
shown that an individual can overcome profound depression when deep brain
stimulation modulates disrupted neural circuits (4), and emerging brain-
computer interfaces allow a person completely paralyzed from a stroke to
feed themselves using a robotic arm controlled by their thoughts (5).
The BAM project will generate a trove of techniques for the neuroscience
community. Just as better sequencing methods arose as a result of the Human
Genome Project, concerted technology development will likely make imaging
and electrophysiological and computational techniques more powerful, more
robust, and less expensive, thus becoming a cost-effective way to support
future neuroscience research and create clinical and commercial applications.
This proposal is meant to stimulate scientists and administrators; our role
is merely to help catalyze action. We believe this initiative should be
funded by a partnership between federal and private organizations. It is
essential that those funds not be taken away from existing neuroscience
initiatives, which we view as crucial. In addition, data from the BAM
project should be made immediately public and accessible to all researchers
In addition to the fundamental, clinical, and technological advances
described, the BAM project will also provide fertile ground for the training
of new generations of interdisciplinary researchers, equally at home in the
neurosciences, the physical sciences, and engineering. The economic
activities galvanized by the BAM project are expected to be comparable to
those of the Human Genome Project, in which a $3.8 billion investment
generated $800 billion in economic impact (6). We believe that when devoted
and passionate groups of people join together to achieve these extraordinary
goals, they will have transformational benefits for humanity. | t*******o
发帖数: 424 | 2 那到底怎么同时测几百万个neuron的活动啊。。。有什么框架？
【在 s******9 的大作中提到】
: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/03/06/science.1236
: The Brain Activity Map
: A. Paul Alivisatos1,*,
: Miyoung Chun2,
: George M. Church3,
: Karl Deisseroth4,
: John P. Donoghue5,
: Ralph J. Greenspan6,
: Paul L. McEuen7,
: Michael L. Roukes8,
| s******y
发帖数: 613 | 3 complex system network
for example：
http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~complex/
【在 t*******o 的大作中提到】
: 那到底怎么同时测几百万个neuron的活动啊。。。有什么框架？
| t*******o
发帖数: 424 | 4 这个我还算比较了解的，也用过这些东西。但是这个显然不是测量neuron activity的
手段啊，数据都没有，这些分析方法能有什么用。
【在 s******y 的大作中提到】
: complex system network
: for example：
: http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~complex/
| a********h
发帖数: 245 | |
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