President Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to spend $100 million next year on the BRAIN Initiative - a project mapping the human brain in hopes of finding prevention, cures and treatment for disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and traumatic brain injuries.

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative would require the development of new technologies to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought, the White House said. 

“As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom,” Obama said. “But we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears.”

From the Associated Press:

Obama wants the initial $100 million investment to support research at the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also wants private companies, universities and philanthropists to partner with the federal agencies in support of the research. And he wants a study of the ethical, legal and societal implications of the research.

“The investments don’t always pay off,” Obama said. “But when they do, they change our lives in ways that we could never have imagined. Computer chips and GPS technology, the Internet - all these things grew out of government investments in basic research.”

The funding will be included in Obama’s budget proposal, The Washington Post reported, scheduled for release next week. 

 

Reach Executive Producer Agnus Dei Farrant here.