Neuroscience at NSF Status and Prosepctives Rae Silver Senior Advisor OIA/OD November 16 2006 ENG Advisory Committee Proc Mem Comm Disk Proc Mem Comm Bus Disk Proc Mem Comm Disk Proc Mem Comm Bus Disk Proc Mem Comm Disk Proc Mem Comm Bus Disk Net
Dec 29, 2015
Neuroscience at NSFStatus and Prosepctives
Rae SilverSenior AdvisorOIA/OD
November 16 2006ENG Advisory Committee
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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
BIO CISE 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 recommendationsBIO SBE July 06
Promising work in cognition & neuroscienceAdaptive Plasticity, Conflict and Cooperation, Spatial
knowledge, Time, Language, Causal Understanding
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/grand_chall.pdf
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) • 1997-98 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:Functional Neuroimaging of Information Flows within the Brain:
Mechanisms of cognitive processes and brain functionsMechanisms of cognitive processes and brain functions
ITR: High-Resolution Cortical Imaging of Brain ITR: High-Resolution Cortical Imaging of Brain Electrical Activity. Bin He, U MinnesotaElectrical Activity. Bin He, U Minnesota