The Age of the Brain Obama’s Brain Initiative, Source Code, and Society

Obama’s Announcement Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies SQc

What this means for Neuroscience The “next great American project” The goal is to map the activity of every single neuron in the human brain. /obama-s-brain-initiative

Breaking down the BRAIN initiative Public: DARPA: 50 million NIH: 40 million NSF: 20 million Co-Chairs Cornelia “Cori” BargmannDr. William Newsome (Rockefeller) (Stanford) Private: The Allen Brain Institute: 60 million HHMI: 30 million Salk Institute: 28 million Kavli Foundation: 4 million ~300 million over 10 years

Breaking down the BRAIN initiative #1. Generate a Census of Cell Types #2. Create Structural Maps of the Brain #3. Develop New Large-Scale Network Recording Capabilities #4. Develop A Suite of Tools for Circuit Manipulation. #5. Link Neuronal Activity to Behavior. #6. Integrate Theory, Modeling, Statistics, and Computation with Experimentation. #7. Delineate Mechanisms Underlying Human Imaging Technologies #8. Create Mechanisms to Enable Collection of Human Data #9. Disseminate Knowledge and Training

Genomes, the moon, and the atomic bomb The human genome project cost 3.8 billion. It has currently generated an economic output of 796 billion.

Genomes, the moon, and the atomic bomb The Space Race Gave us technology for : Modern telescopes (now used for breast cancer), Predictions of atom spins (now used for fMRI) Cell phones Relativity analogy.

Genomes, the moon, and the atomic bomb The human Manhattan project cost 2B. It has currently generated an economic output in the hundreds of billions Nuclear energy provides 5% of the world’s heat and 13% of the world’s electricity. Atom Bomb Timeline On December 6, 1941 the United States Government committed $2 billion dollars to the Manhattan Project to build a secret bomb.

The Human Brain Project vs. The Brain Initiative Like the space race, or competing genome projects, or harvesting nuclear energy, is this the race we need? It aims to simulate the complete human brain on supercomputers to better understand how it function 1B Euro (1.3B dollars) over 10 years The technology this race enables will have widespread applications Coordinator: Henry Markram in Sweden

The Human Brain Project vs. The Brain Initiative “We would like to develop some kind of ‘google' brain where we can zoom in and out, see it from different perspectives and understand how brain structure and function is related.” What brain state/feeling/anything would you want to “google” and zoom in on?

Vegetative State: current progress

How does Source Code stack up? A more plausible explanation: Capt Sweeney is a locked-in patient with rich mental imagery appearing to be in a persistent vegetative state Lacking visual and other sensory input, he confabulates a sensory environment including control of phantom limbs He suffers from schizophrenic like delusions (of grandeur) that include being sent on missions into the memory traces of others In his delusion he can causally act upon the world, saving lives and creating parallel universes

Case studies in consciousness Kate Bainbridge, 1997 viral infection, vegetative state to minimally conscious to fully aware and wheelchair bound Female patient, 2005 traffic accident, vegetative state to minimally conscious Terri Schiavo, 1990 oxygen deprivation, coma to persistent vegetative state

Persistent Vegetative State Kate Bainbridge, 10 years after a viral infection put her in a vegetative state for 6 months Dr. Adrian Owen who used fMRI to identify whether Kate’s brain was processing images and language

Criteria for classifying persistent vegetative state 1)No evidence of awareness of self or environment and an inability to interact with others; 2)No evidence of sustained, reproducible, purposeful, or voluntary behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli; 3)No evidence of language comprehension or expression; 4)Intermittent wakefulness manifested by the presence of sleep-wake cycles; 5)Sufficiently preserved hypothalamic and brainstem autonomic functions to permit survival with medical and nursing care; 6)Bowel and bladder incontinence 7)Variably preserved cranial nerve (pupillary, oculocephalic, corneal, vestibulo-ocular, gag) and spinal reflexes.

Transition to minimally conscious state: In 2005, a 23 year old woman suffered severe head trauma in a traffic accident. She was classified as being in a vegetative state.

Transition to minimally conscious state: behavioral responsiveness In 2005, a 23 year old woman suffered severe head trauma in a traffic accident. She was classified as being in a vegetative state. 11 months after injury, patient could track a mirror with her eyes and fixate on objects for more than 5 seconds.

Transition to minimally conscious state: evidence of language processing Simple sentence “There was milk and sugar in his coffee” – Speech-specific activity observed bilaterally in middle and superior temporal gyri, similar to normal volunteers Ambiguous sentence “The creak came from a beam in the ceiling“ – Significant response in left inferior frontal region similar to normal volunteers. rvsbs

Transition to minimally conscious state: evidence of consciousness?

Is she conscious? (Does she remember being conscious?) BBC asked Kate Bainbridge what she remembered: “I don't remember the scan at all.” The first memories she had, she says, lasted for a few minutes when her occupational therapist came in. I could not move my face, so I could not show people how scared I was. Over the weeks, she gradually became more and more aware. But, she says, it was a very scary experience. “Not being able to communicate was awful - I felt trapped inside my body. I had loads of questions, like 'Where am I?', 'Why am I here?', 'What has happened?…But I could not ask anyone - I had to work it all out…. I could not move my face, so I could not show people how scared I was."

Remote chances of some recovery depend on type of injury 100,000 Americans exist in a minimally conscious state. Some will regain full awareness. 50% of patients with traumatic head injurgy recover some awareness within 1 year. 15% of patients who are in a PVS after oxygen deprivation (like Terry Schiavo) recover some function within 1 year. Of 700 vegetative patients in a 1994 review, none recovered further after 2 years.

Shifting ethical ground Does Dr. Owen’s work with functional imaging (fMRI) demand change to the classification methodology? Even when expense and logistics currently prevent most patients from being tested?