3Q: Robert Desimone on the federal BRAIN Initiative
Mapping the human brain, with its billions of neurons, is one of science’s most elusive projects. But a new federal program — the $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative — could help neuroscientists at MIT and other institutions unlock some of the brain’s mysteries. How will MIT contribute to the initiative’s goals? How will the initiative impact research already being done at MIT and in the Boston area? How will science benefit? Robert Desimone, the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience and director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research — and one of four MIT researchers selected to attend the initiative’s White House announcement on April 2 — discussed these questions with MIT News. Q. What types of new technologies will be developed to achieve the goals of the initiative? And what are the benefits of the initiative, in terms of better understanding the...