BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) White House’s Initiative

BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) White House’s Initiative® – a bold, new initiative focused on revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain.

The BRAIN Initiative is one of the Administration’s “Grand Challenges” – ambitious but achievable goals that require advances in science and technology. Since the President announced the BRAIN Initiative, dozens of leading technology firms, academic institutions, scientists, and other key contributors to the field of neuroscience have answered his call and made significant commitments to advancing the initiative. Top neuroscientists also have developed a 12-year research strategy for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to achieve the goals of the initiative.

The BRAIN Initiative has the potential to do for neuroscience what the Human Genome Project did for genomics by supporting the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of brain function. It aims to help researchers uncover the mysteries of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought. These technologies will open new doors to explore how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information, and shed light on the complex links between brain function and behavior.