Neuroscience at NSF Status and Prosepctives Rae Silver Senior Advisor OIA/OD November ENG Advisory Committee ProcMem Comm Disk ProcMem Comm Bus Disk ProcMem Comm Disk ProcMem Comm Bus Disk ProcMem Comm Disk ProcMem Comm Bus Disk Net

Why Now  The 2006 OMB-OSTP memo calls for more research in complex biological systems – systems that are non-linear, multi-scale, and difficult to predict

Why NSF  NSF is the one agency that can bring to bear the necessary scientific, mathematical and engineering disciplines to explore “complex biological systems – systems that are non-linear, multi-scale, and difficult to predict”  Opportunity Potential  Instrumentation and computational tools  Education

Planning process: Neuroscience at NSF Instrumentation -development -purchase behavioral and physiologic measurement data analysis, modeling, and informatics conceptual and theoretical approaches building brain-like devices and systems BIOCISE GEO ENG MPS SBE

Our Challenge Articulate future research opportunities –new scientific directions –broader benefits to society Develop a series of workshops to identify transformative opportunities –research –education

Workshop recommendations BIO SBE July 06 Promising work in cognition & neuroscience Adaptive Plasticity, Conflict and Cooperation, Spatial knowledge, Time, Language, Causal Understanding CISE ENG MPS August 06 Identified 4 broad areas of opportunity Instrumentation and Measurement Data Analysis, Statistical Modeling, Informatics Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches Building Brain-like Devices and Systems

Timing & Time measurement “Talk about engineering principles!” A central master clock in the SCN. Many cells in different organs throughout the body have clocks, each of which have a circadian cycle in gene expression for large number of genes Similar to motor system – loops within loops – exactly how one should build a complicated engineered system. It’s a bit like how computers are coordinated over the internet in terms of time – each computer has a local clock, and they can be coordinated overall using the NNTP (network time protocol). Partha Mitra ColdSpringHarborLab

Circadian Body Clocks 1972 Daily clock located in hypothalamus-SCN 1971 Clock mutants in flies 1982 Cloning of fly clock gene (Period) Period gene in mammals Discovery of cell based circa-dian clock DAY NIGHT

Brain Computer Interfaces: Biomimetic Microelectronics as Implantable Neural Prostheses Problem: Integration of Brain and Computing Systems Multi-Disciplinary Components: 1.Biomimetic modeling of neurons and neural systems (neuroscience, mathematics, biomedical engineering) 2.Hardware implementation (VLSI) of neural models for parallelism, rapid computational speed, and miniaturization (computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering) 3.Multi-site electrode recording/stimulation arrays to interface devices with the brain (material science, physics, chemistry) long-term memory short-term memory Ted Berger Aug 06

Functional Neuroimaging of Information Flows within the Brain: Mechanisms of cognitive processes and brain functions ITR: High-Resolution Cortical Imaging of Brain Electrical Activity. Bin He, U Minnesota

Implementation: Workshops BIO+SBE: Mind and Brain: Strategies and Directions for Future July 18-19, 2006 CISE+ENG+MPS: Brain Science as a Mutual Opportunity for the Physical & Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science & Engineering August 2006 BIO+CISE+ENG+MPS+SBE March 5-6