IEEE Spectrum January, 2014 - 64

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science. The NSF's reports
echo many of the NIH
report's priorities, calling
for the development of
technologies to map brain
structure and activity;
they also emphasize the
need for sophisticated
new methods to store
and analyze the massive
amounts of data that will
result from large-scale
mapping efforts.
DARPA's role is more
mysterious. The defense
agency will likely look
at promising near-term
applications for soldiers,
such as improvements on
existing brain-imaging
technologies that can
aid soldiers with brain
injuries, but it may also
take a chance on seemingly
improbable ventures.
Its existing neuroscience
programs offer some hints
that DARPA is interested
in neurally enhanced
soldiers: One project seeks
interventions that can
reduce the negative impact
of stress. Other DARPA
projects focus on cyborgstyle fixes for injured
soldiers, such as neurally
linked prosthetic limbs
and neural prosthetics that
could replace lost cognitive
or memory function.
"The feeling is that
whatever path we go
down, it will usher in a
new era," says Herbert
Levine, a Rice University
professor of bioengineering
who coauthored one of
the NSF's BRAIN reports.
A concern of Levine and
others, though, is whether

fUn faCts:
roundworm: 302 neurons
FruiT Fly: 100 000 neurons
mouse: 75 million neurons
caT: 1 billion neurons
chimpanzee: 6.7 billion neurons
human: 86 billion neurons
Congress will continue
to fund the project,
which doesn't yet have
a federal budget beyond
2014. Continued funding
is expected but hardly
assured, and will be
decided in the next year.
As BRAIN proponents
push for funding, they'll
have to walk a fine line
of self-promotion. The
project's potential
applications for selfunderstanding, the
treatment of disease, and
prosthetics are clear, but
it's unrealistic to expect
breakthroughs, much
less cures or answers to
existential questions, in
the next few years. At the
same time, Congress and
the public may have little
patience for theoretical
insights and the slow
pace of basic research.
Scientists may be tempted
to overpromise, setting
the stage for eventual
disappointment and
backlash. As difficult
a sell as it may be, the
BRAIN Initiative should
be embraced for what it is:
a grand, ambitious voyage
into the unknown.
-Br a ndon K eim
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum January, 2014