- Email: [email protected]
Understanding the brain through large, multidisciplinary research initiatives
Correspondence
on evidence provided by healthcare and systems research, from best diagnostic and care practices in primary care, through dementia-care pathways, to palliative and end-of-life care. At present, this evidence is scarce. We declare no competing interests. © 2017. World Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Ltd/Inc/BV. All rights reserved.
Hiral Shah, Emiliano Albanese, *Tarun Dua, on behalf of WHO’s Research Priority Setting Group on Dementia [email protected] Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA (HS); Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland (EA); and Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (TD)
Understanding the brain through large, multidisciplinary research initiatives These are exciting times in neuroscience research. Over the past decade, owing in large part to substantial technological innovation, the field of neuroscience has expanded massively, tackling complex topics with profound policy and social implications. These new scientific advances promise fundamental insight into the organisation and function of the brain, and potentially the treatment of mental and neurological disorders, while capturing the imagination of the general public. On Nov 29, 2016, opportunities and challenges in brain research were discussed in a workshop in the European Parliament, in which three of the world’s leading brain research initiatives, from the European Union (EU), the USA, and Japan, were presented. The Human Brain Project (HBP), launched in 2013, is a 10-year multinational European initiative in the framework of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The project is one www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 16 March 2017
of the first two Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship projects, developed by the EU to underwrite longterm research and innovation efforts. The primary objective of the HBP is to build a European infrastructure for brain research, medicine, and information technology. The underlying idea of the HBP infrastructure is to harness a comprehensive toolbox of the most advanced information technologies, including cloud-based collaboration and development platforms, with databases for metadata and provenance tracking, data analytics, robotics, simulation, medical and neuroinformatics, and computing infrastructure and services, including leading-edge supercomputers and neuromorphic systems.1 The US Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is now in the third year of a 12-year plan. The initiative seeks to deepen our understanding of the central nervous system. This aim will be accomplished through a set of key goals: acceleration of the development of new neurotechnologies; dynamic imaging of circuit activity; exploration into how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information; and linking neural activity and behaviour.2 Japan’s Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/MINDS) project focuses on marmosets as model systems. The project has three main pillars: the first explores the structural and functional mapping of marmoset brains; the second aims to develop new technologies for structural and functional brain mapping; and the third is organisation, by a variety of clinical scientists, to bridge the core projects and clinical studies. Additionally, a growing number of countries around the world (eg, Australia, Canada, and China) 3,4 are investing in neuroscience and neurotechnologies, mobilising an unprecedented amount of funding and resources.
The complexity of brain functioning and neurological disorders needs a multidisciplinary and multicentre research approach; no single project can sufficiently achieve the task of understanding the brain. Several issues emerged during the workshop in the European Parliament. First was the coordination and standardisation of data. Research projects, clinical studies, and patients’ records are currently generating an impressive amount of data worldwide on the healthy and diseased brain. Although difficult to implement, use of a set of standardised protocols in laboratories worldwide would provide strong added value to neuroscience research. Second, the benefits of data sharing was highlighted. An infrastructure that makes sharing data among the brain projects feasible should be explored. Third, it was stressed that analysis of large data sets requires people who are able to integrate experimental neuroscience with computational analyses, modelling, and theory. Therefore, specific educational programmes to train young scientists to make use of the convergence between information technology and neuroscience are needed. Finally, because brain research can challenge our notions of consciousness, personhood, and personal responsibility, there was agreement among attendees at the workshop that ethics are of key importance. Freeman Dyson once observed that new directions in science are frequently opened by new tools rather than by new ideas.5 New equipment and tools to visualise and record the activity of neurons are enabling deeper insight into how the brain processes information and guides behaviour.6 Neuroscience is not one field of research, but rather an alliance of different disciplines. Only such a varied network will allow important common goals and objectives to be achieved.7 We hope that these initiatives will result in an extraordinary collaborative effort not only towards specific
See Editorial page 171 For more on the workshop see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ stoa/cms/cache/offonce/home/ workshops/neuroscience2016;js essionid=2466CBDE565BA3CEF A9A09124EA0DD94 For more on the Human Brain Project see https://www. humanbrainproject.eu/en_GB/ home;jsessionid=30jy3z63nogsl pwwuup2vx8h For more on the BRAIN Initiative see https://www. braininitiative.nih.gov/ For more on the Brain/MINDS project see http://brainminds.jp/ en/ For more on BRAIN Canada see http://www.braincanada.ca/
183
Correspondence
scientific goals, but also towards new methods, concepts, and ways of thinking, to the benefit of patients and society as a whole. The European Parliament will continue to assess progress and foster international and European exchanges in future meetings as the brain projects evolve. KA reports grants from the European Commission. All other authors declare no competing interests. The views expressed in this letter are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their affiliated organisations.
*Gianluca Quaglio, Maurizio Corbetta, Theodoros Karapiperis, Katrin Amunts, Walter Koroshetz, Tetsuo Yamamori, Ruxandra Draghia-Akli [email protected]
184
Scientific Foresight Unit (Science and Technology Options Assessment), European Parliamentary Research Service, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium (GQ, TK); University of Padova, Padova, Italy (MC); Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA (MC); Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-1, Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany (KA); Cecile and Oskar Vogt for Brain Research, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (KA); Science and Infrastructure Board, Human Brain Project, Europe (KA); National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD, USA (WK); National Institutes of Health Brain Initiative, Bethesda, MD, USA (WK); Riken Brain Science Institute, Wako, Japan (TY); Brain/MINDS Project, Wako, Japan (TY); and Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (RD-A) 1
2
3
4
5 6 7
Jorgenson LA, Newsome WT, Anderson DJ, et al. The BRAIN Initiative: developing technology to catalyse neuroscience discovery. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2015; 370: 20140164. Poo MM, Du JL, Ip NY, Xiong ZQ, Xu B, Tan T. China Brain Project: basic neuroscience, brain diseases, and brain-inspired computing. Neuron 2016; 92: 591–96. Australian Brain Alliance Steering Committee. Australian Brain Alliance. Neuron 2016; 92: 597–600. Dyson FJ. Is science mostly driven by ideas or by tools? Science 2012; 338: 1426–27. Huang ZJ, Luo L. It takes the world to understand the brain. Science 2015; 350: 42–44. Brose K. Global neuroscience. Neuron 2016; 92: 557–58.
Amunts K, Ebell C, Muller J, Telefont M, Knoll A, Lippert T. The Human Brain Project: creating a European research infrastructure to decode the human brain. Neuron 2016; 92: 574–81.
www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 16 March 2017
on evidence provided by healthcare and systems research, from best diagnostic and care practices in primary care, through dementia-care pathways, to palliative and end-of-life care. At present, this evidence is scarce. We declare no competing interests. © 2017. World Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Ltd/Inc/BV. All rights reserved.
Hiral Shah, Emiliano Albanese, *Tarun Dua, on behalf of WHO’s Research Priority Setting Group on Dementia [email protected] Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA (HS); Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland (EA); and Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (TD)
Understanding the brain through large, multidisciplinary research initiatives These are exciting times in neuroscience research. Over the past decade, owing in large part to substantial technological innovation, the field of neuroscience has expanded massively, tackling complex topics with profound policy and social implications. These new scientific advances promise fundamental insight into the organisation and function of the brain, and potentially the treatment of mental and neurological disorders, while capturing the imagination of the general public. On Nov 29, 2016, opportunities and challenges in brain research were discussed in a workshop in the European Parliament, in which three of the world’s leading brain research initiatives, from the European Union (EU), the USA, and Japan, were presented. The Human Brain Project (HBP), launched in 2013, is a 10-year multinational European initiative in the framework of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The project is one www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 16 March 2017
of the first two Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship projects, developed by the EU to underwrite longterm research and innovation efforts. The primary objective of the HBP is to build a European infrastructure for brain research, medicine, and information technology. The underlying idea of the HBP infrastructure is to harness a comprehensive toolbox of the most advanced information technologies, including cloud-based collaboration and development platforms, with databases for metadata and provenance tracking, data analytics, robotics, simulation, medical and neuroinformatics, and computing infrastructure and services, including leading-edge supercomputers and neuromorphic systems.1 The US Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is now in the third year of a 12-year plan. The initiative seeks to deepen our understanding of the central nervous system. This aim will be accomplished through a set of key goals: acceleration of the development of new neurotechnologies; dynamic imaging of circuit activity; exploration into how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information; and linking neural activity and behaviour.2 Japan’s Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/MINDS) project focuses on marmosets as model systems. The project has three main pillars: the first explores the structural and functional mapping of marmoset brains; the second aims to develop new technologies for structural and functional brain mapping; and the third is organisation, by a variety of clinical scientists, to bridge the core projects and clinical studies. Additionally, a growing number of countries around the world (eg, Australia, Canada, and China) 3,4 are investing in neuroscience and neurotechnologies, mobilising an unprecedented amount of funding and resources.
The complexity of brain functioning and neurological disorders needs a multidisciplinary and multicentre research approach; no single project can sufficiently achieve the task of understanding the brain. Several issues emerged during the workshop in the European Parliament. First was the coordination and standardisation of data. Research projects, clinical studies, and patients’ records are currently generating an impressive amount of data worldwide on the healthy and diseased brain. Although difficult to implement, use of a set of standardised protocols in laboratories worldwide would provide strong added value to neuroscience research. Second, the benefits of data sharing was highlighted. An infrastructure that makes sharing data among the brain projects feasible should be explored. Third, it was stressed that analysis of large data sets requires people who are able to integrate experimental neuroscience with computational analyses, modelling, and theory. Therefore, specific educational programmes to train young scientists to make use of the convergence between information technology and neuroscience are needed. Finally, because brain research can challenge our notions of consciousness, personhood, and personal responsibility, there was agreement among attendees at the workshop that ethics are of key importance. Freeman Dyson once observed that new directions in science are frequently opened by new tools rather than by new ideas.5 New equipment and tools to visualise and record the activity of neurons are enabling deeper insight into how the brain processes information and guides behaviour.6 Neuroscience is not one field of research, but rather an alliance of different disciplines. Only such a varied network will allow important common goals and objectives to be achieved.7 We hope that these initiatives will result in an extraordinary collaborative effort not only towards specific
See Editorial page 171 For more on the workshop see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ stoa/cms/cache/offonce/home/ workshops/neuroscience2016;js essionid=2466CBDE565BA3CEF A9A09124EA0DD94 For more on the Human Brain Project see https://www. humanbrainproject.eu/en_GB/ home;jsessionid=30jy3z63nogsl pwwuup2vx8h For more on the BRAIN Initiative see https://www. braininitiative.nih.gov/ For more on the Brain/MINDS project see http://brainminds.jp/ en/ For more on BRAIN Canada see http://www.braincanada.ca/
183
Correspondence
scientific goals, but also towards new methods, concepts, and ways of thinking, to the benefit of patients and society as a whole. The European Parliament will continue to assess progress and foster international and European exchanges in future meetings as the brain projects evolve. KA reports grants from the European Commission. All other authors declare no competing interests. The views expressed in this letter are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their affiliated organisations.
*Gianluca Quaglio, Maurizio Corbetta, Theodoros Karapiperis, Katrin Amunts, Walter Koroshetz, Tetsuo Yamamori, Ruxandra Draghia-Akli [email protected]
184
Scientific Foresight Unit (Science and Technology Options Assessment), European Parliamentary Research Service, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium (GQ, TK); University of Padova, Padova, Italy (MC); Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA (MC); Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-1, Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany (KA); Cecile and Oskar Vogt for Brain Research, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (KA); Science and Infrastructure Board, Human Brain Project, Europe (KA); National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD, USA (WK); National Institutes of Health Brain Initiative, Bethesda, MD, USA (WK); Riken Brain Science Institute, Wako, Japan (TY); Brain/MINDS Project, Wako, Japan (TY); and Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (RD-A) 1
2
3
4
5 6 7
Jorgenson LA, Newsome WT, Anderson DJ, et al. The BRAIN Initiative: developing technology to catalyse neuroscience discovery. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2015; 370: 20140164. Poo MM, Du JL, Ip NY, Xiong ZQ, Xu B, Tan T. China Brain Project: basic neuroscience, brain diseases, and brain-inspired computing. Neuron 2016; 92: 591–96. Australian Brain Alliance Steering Committee. Australian Brain Alliance. Neuron 2016; 92: 597–600. Dyson FJ. Is science mostly driven by ideas or by tools? Science 2012; 338: 1426–27. Huang ZJ, Luo L. It takes the world to understand the brain. Science 2015; 350: 42–44. Brose K. Global neuroscience. Neuron 2016; 92: 557–58.
Amunts K, Ebell C, Muller J, Telefont M, Knoll A, Lippert T. The Human Brain Project: creating a European research infrastructure to decode the human brain. Neuron 2016; 92: 574–81.
www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 16 March 2017