some science-related strategic challenges - neuroscience excerpt
TRANSCRIPT
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
1/8
Some science-relatedstrategic challenges(excerpt)
A report for the UKGovernment Office forScience
Ariel Research ServicesFebruary 2013Written by Michael Reilly+44 (0)7986599791michael@arielresearchservices.comwww.arielresearchservices.com
Prospero and Ariel by Steering for North 2012 All rights reserved
This report has been commissioned by the UK Government Office for Science. The views expressedin this report are not those of the UK Government and do not represent its policies.
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
2/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
2
4. Neuroscience from genes to cognition, from molecule to mind
Summary
Neuroscience, the study of the brain and the nervous system, could be the most
revolutionary and far-reaching area of scientific research of the 21st century. The mostimportant application so far has been to the analysis and treatment of neurological disorders
but some of the other early applications of neuroscience are rudimentary and controversial.
There are risks of policy mis-steps in the regulation of the neuroscience application and
principles will have to be carefully formulated. Through new pedagogies, it could have a key
role in treating learning difficulties and enhancing cognition. Security applications are already
being explored, particularly in the US, and it is expected to be a force multiplier.
Neuroeconomics, a rich inter-disciplinary convergence between biology, psychology and
economics is likely to have implications for policymaking. The physiology and the activity of
the brain resemble that of a complex network and it may be resistant to meaningful
simulation. Invasive experiments on mice and monkeys have been crucial to the rapiddevelopment of neuroscience since the latter half of the 20th century and experts argue they
will still be necessary. The phenomenal rise of fMRI has meant that non-invasive
experiments using humans have become widespread. Although fMRI is a crude instrument,
it could be improved in the future. Optogenetics, which is currently exciting neuroscientists,
illustrates the profound societal opportunities of neuroscience but also the threats it
represents to some social norms.
New connections
In 1906 a brilliant Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramn y Cajal produced evidence for the
neuron doctrine (Ramn y Cajal, 1967). Cajal found that the brain is made of discrete cells,neurons, which act as elementary signalling units. The number of neurons and their
connectivity is what distinguishes the cognitive ability of species. Around the 1960s it was
becoming apparent that the brain filters and transforms sensory information, according to its
physiology, and that these transformations are critical for perception (Kandel & Squire,
2000). Neuroscience, the study of the brain and the nervous system, could be the most
revolutionary and far-reaching area of scientific research of the 21st century (Taylor, 2012).
The fundamental questions of how the brain perceives, thinks, acts and remembers have
been invigorated by a remarkable integration of molecular and cell biology and psychology.
Once at the periphery, neuroscience has become an inter-disciplinary field that is now
central to both. Its scope ranges from genes to cognition, from molecules to mind (Kandel& Squire, 2000).
Measured in terms of publication and citation, neuroscience and its related disciplines have
been the fastest growing areas of scientific research for the last decade (University of
Washington, 2012). The most important application so far has been in the analysis and
treatment of neurological disorders (Kandel & Squire, 2000). Slower progress has been
made with psychiatric disorders partly because they are also modulated by environment
factors.
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
3/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
3
Figure 4.1, New connections in science research, 2004. Source: (University of Washington,
2012). Orange circles represent fields, with larger, darker circles indicating larger field size
as measured by an eigenfactor score. Blue arrows represent citation flow between fields.
An arrow from field A to field B indicates citation traffic from A to B, with larger, darker arrows
indicating higher citation volume.
Fuzzy thinking
But some of the other early applications of neuroscience are rudimentary and controversial.
Professor Dan Ariely argues that using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
assess products and services at the ideas stage may be commercially useful while others
dismiss it as marketing hype (Ariel & Berns, 2010). Neuroimaging has also been introduced
as evidence in courts of law even to the extent in the US of helping to assess culpability of
criminal behaviour (Royal Society, 2011).
There are risks of policy mis-steps in the regulation of the neuroscience application. In
France, neuroscientists helped convince the French Parliament to revise its rules onbioethics and ban commercial use of neuroimaging but were unable to resist politicians
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
4/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
4
wishes for it to be used in the context of court expertise (Ouillier, 2012). Policy-makers
would do well to anticipate applications in advance because decisions could be difficult; and
principles-based regulation may be necessary to prevent innovation being stifled by blunt
prohibition.
A force multiplier
The gradual application of neuroscience to policy belies its extraordinary potential. Although
learning outcomes are also modulated by environmental factors, in education and lifelong
learning, neuroscience research has provided new insights into the enduring plasticity of the
brain and the transience of skill. Through new pedagogies, it could have a key role in
treating learning difficulties and enhancing cognition (Royal Society, 2011).
Security applications are already being explored, particularly in the US. A National Academy
of Science report in 2009 urged a more systematic monitoring of research breakthroughs so
as to anticipate applications where investment may confer significant military advantage
(National Research Council, 2009). Cognitive neuroscience has been identified as an area
that could lead to improvements in soldier performance. A deeper understanding of
individual variability could, by enabling a better allocation of personnel to tasks based on
their attitude to and appetite for risk, become a force multiplier. There is interest in its
applicability to the efficacy of training, pharmacological cognitive enhancement, as well as
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-blast care. The report also recommends
investment into key technologies such as brain-machine interfaces.
Neuroeconomics
Neuroscience has also become recently intertwined with economics through the study ofdecision-making and economic behaviour. This rich inter-disciplinary convergence between
biology, psychology and economics is likely to have implications for policymaking. One of the
early breakthroughs in neuroeconomics has been a deepening in the understanding of
reinforcement learning where an agent has to make choices through trial and error. In this
decision-making framework, prediction errors update and guide the agent towards options
that maximise reward. Following on from single-neuron recording experiments in monkeys, it
has subsequently been discovered that dopamine-mediated prediction error is used as a
teaching signal to learn expected action values and to favour optimal choice in humans
(Dolan, 2008).
For humans especially, there can also be other potential outcomes to a decision such as
another more uncertain though potentially more valuable reward. There is evidence that this
exploit-explore dilemma is mediated by activity in distinct parts of the brain: orbital
prefrontal cortex activity covaries with exploitative actions and anterior frontopolar cortex
activity covaries with exploratory actions (Daw, et al., 2006).
Neuroeconomics insights are leading to a more theoretical understanding of decision-
making. If key economic variables such as a disposition to explore or exploit, a propensity to
discount future rewards, or sensitivity to variance in outcomes, are under modulatory
neurotransmitter control then it raises the prospect of more precise pharmacological
interventions to treat aberrant decision-making (Dolan, 2008). But it also presents sociallyawkward - though potentially game-changing - opportunities to enhance sub-optimal
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
5/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
5
decision-making through selection, training and pharmacology. Neuroscience could load
categorisations of human computational cognition with meanings that invite dangerous
interpretations.
Brain activity
If only neuroeconomics were advanced enough to help decision-makers allocate resources
to future research. Despite the achievements of neuroscience, the brain represents an
exemplar of the messiness of the real. Two hugely ambitious neuroscience projects in the
US and in Europe have been launched recently to generate and synthesise new knowledge.
The US project, announced by President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address, is
likely to follow the successful approach of the Human Genome Project by mapping brain
activity (Markoff, 2013). The European Union Human Brain Project, on the other hand, a 10
year 1.2bn flagship science project, intends to simulate the brain using supercomputers, an
undertaking that some neuroscience experts consider foolhardy at current levels of
knowledge (Waldrop, 2012). The physiology and the activity of the brain resemble that of acomplex network, which may resistant to meaningful simulation (Marcus, 2013).
It is, thus, important to take stock of the inadequacies of current knowledge. There are many
important questions in neuroscience that it will be difficult to answer with the limitations of
existing methods (Brain Mind Forum, 2012).
But an instrumental challenge
Some reporting of the Human Brain Project has erroneously claimed that computer
simulation may lessen the need for invasive experiments on animals such as mice and
monkeys (Waldrop, 2012). Such experiments have been crucial to the rapid development ofneuroscience since the latter half of the 20th century and experts argue they will still be
necessary. Professor Colin Blakemore, a renowned neuroscientist, and an outspoken
advocate of the need for experiments with animals to improve scientific knowledge of the
human nervous system, faced years of attacks by animal rights activists (McKie, 2003).
The phenomenal rise of fMRI has meant that non-invasive experiments using humans have
become widespread. Using blood as a proxy for the measurement of neuron activity, fMRI is
a crude instrument. The technique could be improved by switching to superconducting
quantum interference devices to measure directly the electrical activity of neurons, or, failing
this, using stronger magnets and molecular enablers like parahydrogen that generate a
better signal (Smith, 2012). More powerful statistical analysis may improve the low signal-to-
noise ratio of fMRI while a systematic accumulation of reference datasets could benefit
comparative research (Smith, 2012).
Optogenetics shines a light
Neuroscientists are currently very excited by optogenetics. By genetically engineering
neurons to be sensitive to light and then employing implanted optical fibres to stimulate and
control their expression, experiments have been able to discover with greater precision how
complex brain networks affect behaviour in mice (Schoonover & Rabinowitz, 2011). The
application of this new knowledge to human neurological and psychiatric disorders couldrefine imprecise pharmacological interventions and invasive deep brain stimulation. The
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
6/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
6
technology illustrates the profound societal opportunities of neuroscience but also the threats
it represents to some social norms. On the one hand, identifying complex brain circuits in
humans that explain disorders may reduce the considerable stigma of neurological and
psychiatric disorders. On the other, the pioneer of optogenetics, Professor Gero
Miesenbock, has been caricatured as a comic character in Japan as a brilliant, but evil,
scientist whose skull has been replaced with a plexi-glass dome so that his thoughts can becontrolled with light (Fielden, 2012).
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
7/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
7
References
Ariel, D. & Berns, G., 2010. Neuromarketing: the hope and hype of neuroimaging in
business. Nature Neuroscience, Volume 11, pp. 284-292.
Brain Mind Forum, 2012. The Key Questions for brain sceince and society to address,
London: Brain Mind Forum.
Daw, N. et al., 2006. Cortical substrates for exploratory decisions in humans. Nature,
Volume 441, pp. 876-879.
Dolan, R., 2008. State of science review: neuroeconomics, London: Governemnt Office for
Science.
Fielden, T., 2012. Switching on a light in the brain. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20513292
Kandel, E. & Squire, L., 2000. Neuroscience: breaking down scientific to the study of brain
and mind. Science, Volume 290, pp. 1113-1120.
Marcus, G., 2013. We are not yet ready to simulate the brain. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b70cc5d6-6b00-11e2-9670-00144feab49a.html
Markoff, J., 2013. Project seeks build map of human brain. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/science/project-seeks-to-build-map-of-
human-brain.html?ref=science
McKie, R., 2003. Scientist who stood up to terrorism and mob hate faces his toughest test.
[Online]
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/sep/14/animalwelfare.science
National Research Council, 2009. Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army
Applications, Washington D.C.: National Academies Press.
Ouillier, O., 2012. Clear up this fuzzy thinking on brain scans. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nature.com/news/clear-up-this-fuzzy-thinking-on-brain-scans-
1.10127
Ramn y Cajal, S., 1967. Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine (1901-1921). Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
Royal Society, 2011. Brain Waves Module 2: implications for education and lifelong learning,
London: Royal Society.
Royal Society, 2011. Brain Waves Module 4: Neuoroscience and the law, London: Royal
Society.
Schoonover, C. & Rabinowitz, A., 2011. Control desk for the neural switchboard. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Smith, K., 2012. fMRI 2.0. Nature, Volume 484, pp. 24-26.
-
7/29/2019 Some Science-related Strategic Challenges - Neuroscience Excerpt
8/8
Created by Ariel Research Services February 2013
8
Taylor, K., 2012. The Brain Supremacy. [Online]
Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-taylor/neuroscience-
research_b_1909556.html
University of Washington, 2012. Maps of science. [Online]
Available at: http://www.eigenfactor.org/map/maps.php
Waldrop, M., 2012. Computer modelling: brain in a box. Nature, Volume 482, pp. 456-458.