NeuroTech: Neuroscience at NSF
D. H. Whalen Program Director, Cognitive Neuroscience
Current NSF Neuroscience
• Across virtually all directorates. • About $60 million in FY06.
– Difficult to assess, because neuroscience is not coded directly. – Depends on your definition as well, of course. – Even this number does not include centers.
• Still not seen as a priority despite this rather large outlay.
Current Reassessment
• Neuroscience at NSF is being examined Foundation-wide. • Objective: Redefine NSF’s mission in this area.
– Takes NIH into account. – Input from most directorates.
• Primary tools: three workshops.
Workshop 1: July 2006
• “Grand Challenges of Mind and Brain.” • Four member Steering Committee.
– Sheila Blumstein (chair). – Thomas Carew. – Nancy Kanwisher. – Terry Sejnowski.
• Twelve more in Workshop Panel. • Report available on CogNeuro web page.
“Grand Challenge” Areas
• • • • • • Adaptive Plasticity. Conflict and Cooperation. Spatial Knowledge. Time. Language. Causal Understanding.
“Grand Challenge” Tools
• Human Brain Circuitry.
– Imaging, of course. – Also specifically mentions nonhuman species.
• Mathematical Innovations.
– Non-linear varieties in particular.
• Information Databases. • Molecular Tools. • Cyberinfrastructure.
Workshop 2: August 2006
• Primarily MPS.
– “Brain Science as a Mutual Opportunity for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, and Engineering.” – Somewhat less grand.
• Chaired by Chris Wood (Santa Fe Inst.). • Thirteen other participants. • Report available on CogNeuro website.
Three Broad Areas
• A Shift in the Scope and Scale of Experimental Investigations.
– Recordings from multiple events and sites.
• A Shift in the Character of Theoretical Understanding.
– Simultaneously bottom-up and top-down.
• A Shift in How Knowledge Can Be Used.
– Greater ability to model complex systems. – More potential for direct brain/machine links.
Instrumentation and Measurement
• Functional measurements in neurons and circuits. • Labeling in neurons and circuits. • Controlling activity in neurons and circuits. • The importance of model organisms.
Data Analysis, Statistical Modeling and Informatics.
• Multidisciplinary input to new measurement techniques. • Methods to integrate Diverse Data Sources. • Statistics, Signal Processing and Machine Learning. • New Tools for Control Theory. • Analyzing Multiple Levels and Time Scales. • Inferring Causality in Neural Systems. • New Approaches to Data Management/Sharing.
Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches
• Fundamental Role of Mathematics. • Dynamical Systems. • Statistical Physics/Large Degrees of Freedom. • Engineering Approaches. • Machine Learning Tools. • Large-Scale Simulations.
Brain-Like Devices and Systems
• Analog Approaches. • Stochastic Semiconductor Circuits. • Neural Coding and Functional Biomimetic Systems. • Brain-Like Robots. • Biocompatible Neural Interfaces.
Now, Four Broad Areas
• Instrumentation and Measurement. • Data Analysis, Statistical Modeling, and Informatics. • Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches. • Building Brain-Like Devices and Systems.
Workshop 3: March 2007
• The workshop was organized around seven interdisciplinary themes, and led by: • Chris Wood, Vice President, Santa Fe Institute. • Ted Berger, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, USC. • Emery Brown, Dept of Brain/Cognitive Sciences, MIT. • Eve Marder, Dept of Biology, Brandeis University. • Tom Mitchell, Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon U. • Partha Mitra, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. • Marcus Raichle, Dept of Radiology, Washington U. • Jonathan Sweedler, Dept of Chemistry, U. of Illinois.
Workshop 3: March 2007
• The workshop was organized around seven interdisciplinary themes, and led by: • Chris Wood, Vice President, Santa Fe Institute. • Ted Berger, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, USC. • Emery Brown, Dept of Brain/Cognitive Sciences, MIT. • Eve Marder, Dept of Biology, Brandeis University. • Tom Mitchell, Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon U. • Partha Mitra, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. • Sheila Blumstein, Dept of Linguistics, Brown U. • Jonathan Sweedler, Dept of Chemistry, U. of Illinois.
SBE in this Workshop
• Main working group of interest to SBE is Raichle’s/Blumstein’s: • “Cognitive Systems: Neural Bases of Thought and Behavior.” • Meant to convey the extensive interaction of systems seen in every cognitive domain. • Many other relevant topics in other working groups.
Various Promising Topics
• • • • • • • Navigation and Spatial Cognition. Speech Perception. Face Recognition. Reading. Perception and Action. Number Skills. Tools for the Future.
The Big Question
• How does the brain create thought and behavior? • Despite many interesting findings, the fundamentals are still not known. • Converging techniques, in imaging and in theory (e.g., complexity), are making new advances possible.
The Specific Big Question
• As Dr. Bement asked at the workshop, how does consciousness arise? • Nancy Kanwisher, our presenter, pointed out that this is still too difficult a question to answer directly. • However, we have interesting components that have been located, such as face perception with and without awareness.
SBE: Cognitive Neuroscience
• Most of the SBE-specific topics were in cognitive neuroscience, but not necessarily the Cognitive Neuroscience program:
– – – – – – – – – Perception, Action and Cognition Linguistics Social Psychology Economics Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Developmental and Learning Sciences Cultural Anthropology Physical Anthropology Human Origins (HOMINID)
Other Potential Areas
• • • • • • Neural imaging of voting decisions. Culturally-specific patterns of perception. MRI lie detectors? New statistical tools. Neural study of ethics decisions. Basic questions posed by diseases (“nature’s knock-out experiments”).
Support from Other Programs
• Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation • Data-Net • Community-based Data Interoperability Networks (INTEROP) • Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) (soon)
Challenges
• Enormous area, dominated by biology. • Differentiating NSF from NIH. • Choosing right level of problem within SBE parameters. • International collaboration (at least, getting the word out, if not providing new mechanisms).
Opportunities
• Additional funds may be forthcoming. • Partnering with European funders. • New tools and techniques may truly make future advances happen at a currently unimaginable pace. • 2010’s: Decade of the Mind.
Thank you.