Microscopy, 2015, 3–4 doi: 10.1093/jmicro/dfu106
Editorial
Brain/MINDS – a new program for comprehensive analyses of the brain for a major paradigm shift in neuroscience, with its ambitious goal of providing the integrated view on brain function, based on comprehensive knowledge on the neural network. US President Obama announced the launching of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), a large-scale national research project in 2013 [1]. The BRAIN Initiative is targeted at accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies to revolutionize our understanding of the neural network of the whole human brain. In the same year, the Human Brain Project (HBP) was launched in Europe to develop database platforms bringing together the experimental data from various kinds of brain research [2]. In parallel with these projects in the United States and Europe, Japan has been formulating its own project based on the following three objectives: to focus on studies of nonhuman primate brains that will directly link to better understanding of the human brain; to elucidate the neural networks involved in neurological and psychiatric diseases and to promote close cooperation between basic and clinical neurosciences. This new research program, Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/ MINDS), was just launched in fiscal 2014 [3]. RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI) plays a central role in structural and functional mapping of the non-human primate brain, together with development of new imaging technologies. The information about the primate neuronal network will be integrated with the human functional neuroimaging collected by the clinical research group. Brain/MINDS program recently selected additional 17 research units for the development of novel cutting edge technologies. RIKEN BSI, the clinical research group, and the technology development group will cooperate and contribute to both fundamental discovery in neuroscience and innovation in diagnosis and therapy of brain disorders [4]. In this issue of Microscopy, project leaders of Brain/ MINDS, Drs Hideyuki Okano and Atsushi Miyawaki, contributed review articles and provided their views on development of new technologies in microscopy and their
© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]
3
Downloaded from http://jmicro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Seton Hall on April 1, 2015
The human brain processes a huge amount of information to perform the complex functions that make us unique. This ability in information processing and storage is thought to be dependent on a network of some 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Even armed with the sophisticated technologies in neuroscience, our understanding in the information processing associated with higher cognitive functions progresses slowly over the last few decades. This difficulty is partly derived from the lack of technologies that can bridge the different spatial and temporal domains of functional measurements. High frequency measurements of neuronal activity in vivo are possible with electrophysiological recordings, which can handle only several hundred neurons with current technologies of electrode manufacturing and implementation of recording devices. Conversely, information processing in a large brain area can be estimated only through the averaged activities of local neuronal population with their numbers in a range of several hundred thousands. The gap between these two recording techniques has been taken to be impossible to fill in. Another challenge in comprehensive analysis of the brain circuitry is invention of new information technology. The data size required to describe the connectivity of some 100 billion neurons is enormous and beyond the ability of the currently available supercomputing system. Therefore, most scientists have thought that it should be impossible to realize brain-wide analyses of network activity at the level of single neurons. Fortunately, however, several new technologies have been developed in quick succession in recent years that provide keys to analyzing the whole brain network at the level of single neurons. These include connectome technology that enables automatic acquisition of electron microscopic images of synaptic connectivity; light microscopic technologies that make the brain transparent and record its entire structure on a cellular level and optogenetics that controls activity of specific neurons by light. Stimulated by these new technologies, together with recent advancement in information technologies that can support automatic reconstruction and analyses of neuronal circuitry, neuroscientists start to think that it is time
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Microscopy, 2015, Vol. 64, No. 1
application in neuroscience. Together with other excellent articles on new imaging technologies, this issue will help readers appreciate the cutting edge of neuroscience and its future.
3. Web site of Brain/MINDS. http://brainminds.jp/en/. 4. Cyranoski D (2014) Marmosets are stars of Japan’s ambitious brain project. Nature 514: 151–152.
References
Shigeo Okabe Program Director, Brain/MINDS, and Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
1. Web site of Brain Initiative at the White House. http://www. whitehouse.gov/share/brain-initiative. 2. Web site of Human Brain Project. https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/.
Downloaded from http://jmicro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Seton Hall on April 1, 2015
Editorial
Brain/MINDS – a new program for comprehensive analyses of the brain for a major paradigm shift in neuroscience, with its ambitious goal of providing the integrated view on brain function, based on comprehensive knowledge on the neural network. US President Obama announced the launching of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), a large-scale national research project in 2013 [1]. The BRAIN Initiative is targeted at accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies to revolutionize our understanding of the neural network of the whole human brain. In the same year, the Human Brain Project (HBP) was launched in Europe to develop database platforms bringing together the experimental data from various kinds of brain research [2]. In parallel with these projects in the United States and Europe, Japan has been formulating its own project based on the following three objectives: to focus on studies of nonhuman primate brains that will directly link to better understanding of the human brain; to elucidate the neural networks involved in neurological and psychiatric diseases and to promote close cooperation between basic and clinical neurosciences. This new research program, Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/ MINDS), was just launched in fiscal 2014 [3]. RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI) plays a central role in structural and functional mapping of the non-human primate brain, together with development of new imaging technologies. The information about the primate neuronal network will be integrated with the human functional neuroimaging collected by the clinical research group. Brain/MINDS program recently selected additional 17 research units for the development of novel cutting edge technologies. RIKEN BSI, the clinical research group, and the technology development group will cooperate and contribute to both fundamental discovery in neuroscience and innovation in diagnosis and therapy of brain disorders [4]. In this issue of Microscopy, project leaders of Brain/ MINDS, Drs Hideyuki Okano and Atsushi Miyawaki, contributed review articles and provided their views on development of new technologies in microscopy and their
© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]
3
Downloaded from http://jmicro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Seton Hall on April 1, 2015
The human brain processes a huge amount of information to perform the complex functions that make us unique. This ability in information processing and storage is thought to be dependent on a network of some 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Even armed with the sophisticated technologies in neuroscience, our understanding in the information processing associated with higher cognitive functions progresses slowly over the last few decades. This difficulty is partly derived from the lack of technologies that can bridge the different spatial and temporal domains of functional measurements. High frequency measurements of neuronal activity in vivo are possible with electrophysiological recordings, which can handle only several hundred neurons with current technologies of electrode manufacturing and implementation of recording devices. Conversely, information processing in a large brain area can be estimated only through the averaged activities of local neuronal population with their numbers in a range of several hundred thousands. The gap between these two recording techniques has been taken to be impossible to fill in. Another challenge in comprehensive analysis of the brain circuitry is invention of new information technology. The data size required to describe the connectivity of some 100 billion neurons is enormous and beyond the ability of the currently available supercomputing system. Therefore, most scientists have thought that it should be impossible to realize brain-wide analyses of network activity at the level of single neurons. Fortunately, however, several new technologies have been developed in quick succession in recent years that provide keys to analyzing the whole brain network at the level of single neurons. These include connectome technology that enables automatic acquisition of electron microscopic images of synaptic connectivity; light microscopic technologies that make the brain transparent and record its entire structure on a cellular level and optogenetics that controls activity of specific neurons by light. Stimulated by these new technologies, together with recent advancement in information technologies that can support automatic reconstruction and analyses of neuronal circuitry, neuroscientists start to think that it is time
4
Microscopy, 2015, Vol. 64, No. 1
application in neuroscience. Together with other excellent articles on new imaging technologies, this issue will help readers appreciate the cutting edge of neuroscience and its future.
3. Web site of Brain/MINDS. http://brainminds.jp/en/. 4. Cyranoski D (2014) Marmosets are stars of Japan’s ambitious brain project. Nature 514: 151–152.
References
Shigeo Okabe Program Director, Brain/MINDS, and Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
1. Web site of Brain Initiative at the White House. http://www. whitehouse.gov/share/brain-initiative. 2. Web site of Human Brain Project. https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/.
Downloaded from http://jmicro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Seton Hall on April 1, 2015
