Launched in 2013, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative® is a large-scale effort funded by the NIH, other government agencies, and private organizations to equip researchers with new tools to interrogate and modulate brain activity. Technologies that offer a window to the brain in action will transform the diagnosis and treatment of neuro/mental/substance abuse disorders of brain circuits.
Neuroscience has brought remarkable insights about how individual brain cells and synapses work, but has had less success decoding how circuits of interconnected nerve cells carry out the complex higher functions of the brain and what goes wrong in neuro/mental/substance abuse disorders. The major barrier to progress has been the lack of means to adequately define the structure of brain circuits and record the complex information flow through circuits, which in a human brain may contain up to 185 billion cells. The BRAIN Initiative® arose because tools to tackle these challenges are now emerging, building upon advances from diverse fields of science and technology. The application of new tools to better understand the biological basis of signals available to current neuroimaging techniques as well as the development of next generation neuroimaging technologies will deepen the arsenal available to diagnose and treat neuro/mental/substance abuse disorders of brain circuitry.
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