Why the NIH's BRAIN Initiative Research Funding is Wilting

There is no gene for a ball, and there is no neuron for a shoe. There could be connectomics for as long as possible but they are unlikely to be found. Genes are expressed when playing a ball or speaking about it. Neurons are active when wearing a shoe or discussing it, but the question is, what represents a ball or a shoe within the cranium?

The ball or shoe that is in the external world is in a form within the cranium. What components within the cranium have this representation? What are their features and how do they interact?

If there are components specifically for representations [of exteroception and interoception], then how may they shape how mental disorders are understood and treated, as well as neurodegenerative disorders, then natural intelligence, learning, consciousness, addiction and so forth?

There is a recent interactive by Nature, What's so special about the human brain?, stating that, "When comparing gene expression across species, many differences turn out to be related to how the connections between neurons — called synapses — connect with and signal to each other."

The next frontier for progress in global neuroscience research is the electrical and chemical signals, in sets in clusters of neurons, as the basis for representation [or interpretation] of all functions. Not signals as the means of communication, but signals as the basis for which information is organized, because if neurons were communicating smell, how did they come by the configuration of that smell? And what would be the difference between how the configuration came by and the relay?

If signals can relay sensory configurations, it is theorized that it is only possible because signals configured them, blending mechanization and transport. If this is not the case, then what assembled the configurations of a ball or a shoe, for the signals to transport? Then how different is the source from the signals? And what converted them to be made ready for transport?

What is the human mind? How is it different from the brain, the body, neurons and genes? What is their relationship? How does the mind mechanize functions? What is the role of the mind in mental health, illness, degenerative diseases, addiction, consciousness, and implications for artificial intelligence?

Even a rough concept of how the [sets of] signals explain depression, as a result of the NIH BRAIN Initiative would have become substantial news that would have stoked funding and propelled the rest of the research to collective priority, for support, across sources.

Genes do not know the units in physics, neither are neurons mutating [in anatomy] when [an individual is] stating an economic model. Genes prepare the templates by which signals build configurations while neurons [and their synapses] become the bridges for which configurations [by signals] are built and transported [by signals], conceptually. Signals are the human mind and they have a large swathe of autonomy.

Progress is to seek the source of the representation, then pursue explorations towards possibilities for broader advances, while ongoing studies have enough time to hatch.

The human mind is theorized to be the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals of neurons with all their interactions and features, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems.

The NIH BRAIN Initiative has also not had any major conceptual leap, while an opening is available in the sets of electrical and chemical signals, with a better chance to induce more research funding and answer several unknowns.

There is a recent story on The Transmitter, Neuroscientists reeling from past cuts advocate for more BRAIN Initiative funding, stating that, "The BRAIN Initiative lost $278 million in funding from the 2023 to the 2024 fiscal year budget. That change, announced in April, reflected a planned decrease in contributions to the program from the 21st Century Cures Act and no simultaneous increase in base appropriations. The program kept ongoing grants funded, but multiple new opportunities were canceled or terminated in May. Those resources have advanced translational research—leading, for example, to the development of neuroprosthetics to restore someone’s ability to speak and viral vectors to target specific cell types for gene therapy. Despite a 40 percent drop in funding earlier this year, the BRAIN Initiative, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) program that finances large swaths of basic neuroscience research, remains a “high priority,” the agency’s director, Monica Bertagnolli, said in a U.S. House Committee on Appropriations hearing on Tuesday."

There is recent commentary in Nature, The BRAIN initiative: a pioneering program on the precipice, stating that, "Launched in 2013, the BRAIN Initiative (BRAIN) in the United States aimed to unlock the mysteries of the brain and develop new treatments for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The success of this program is evidenced by the accelerated discoveries and development of interventions that are happening in real time. However, a recent 40% cut in funding for BRAIN threatens this once-in-a-generation opportunity to solve fundamental mysteries of the brain and achieve treatment breakthroughs that we once thought impossible."