Neuroscience in 50 years

[Helix]

There have been many innovations in neuroscience lately, it seems as if the brain can't hold its secrets from us for long.

 

 

From the first brain prosthesis:

 

AN ARTIFICIAL hippocampus' date=' the world's first brain prosthesis, is about to be tested in California. Unlike devices like cochlear implants, which merely stimulate brain activity, this silicon chip implant will perform the same processes as the damaged part of the brain it is replacing.

 

The prosthesis will first be tested on tissue from rats' brains, and then on live animals. If all goes well, it will then be tested as a way to help people who have suffered brain damage due to stroke, epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease.

 

Any device that mimics the brain clearly raises ethical issues. The brain not only affects memory, but your mood, awareness and consciousness - parts of your fundamental identity, says ethicist Joel Anderson at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. [/quote']

 

To a man controlling a computer with his mind:

 

A pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time' date=' and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.

 

Many paralysed people control computers with their eyes or tongue. But muscle function limits these techniques, and they require a lot of training. For over a decade researchers have been trying to find a way to tap directly into thoughts.

 

In June 2004, surgeons implanted a device containing 100 electrodes into the motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic. The device, called the BrainGate, was developed by the company Cyberkinetics, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Each electrode taps into a neuron in the patient's brain.

 

The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head.

[/quote']

 

Neurology is taking a leap into the future, so what's next? More importantly, where do you see neuroscience in 50 years; what will be the major neurotechnological revolution? Brain chips? Cures for Parkinson's and Alzheimers'? Replacement parts? Or even the elusive answer to what makes us conscience.

[who_knows]

neuroscience in 50 years; what will be the major neurotechnological revolution? Brain chips?

 

I see Scientists creating Terminator like fetuses by order of the Goverment with 666 chips planted in their heads.

[shush]

These are the 3 areas where i expect neuroscience to make the most progress:

1. Genetic basis of psychiatric disorders (and even behavior, intelligence and other such qualitative traits!): The power of the completed human genome will be fully exploited in the next two decades or so. Hence I expect a lot of genes turning up which contribute towards behavioral and psychiatric disorders. I also expect that the first steps towards relating the gene product involved and the actual way in which it acts. This should also be accompanied by better designed drugs to treat these disorders.

 

2. Memory research is another area I expect great progress in. In addition to better therapies for disorders like alzhiemer's, this research will also improve our knowledge about how memories are formed and how they influence decision making.

 

3. Computational neuroscience is another area I would hedge on. Biological neural networks will get better delineated and a better picture will emerge about how information is represented and processed in the brain.

 

On the other hand, I think that the progress in areas like 'mind' and 'consciousness' will be contingent on progress in physics and on the number of smart physicists who will undertake to explore this question.

[Helix]

2. Memory research is another area I expect great progress in. In addition to better therapies for disorders like alzhiemer's, this research will also improve our knowledge about how memories are formed and how they influence decision making.

 

 

I agree that research in memory and the neural processes associated etc, will really leap forward in the coming half-a-century. But I think the change will sort of be in the opposite direction; I belive research will focus on how to remove memories. People with PTSD especially could benefit from therapies that remove or deaden memories.

 

This is being researched now, and there was a New Scientist article about it a few months ago. Here's a link (subscription needed but at least you can see it's there): http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18825281.200

[bascule]

By 2025 we will be able to create a molecular model of a human being, from egg to adult organism, in realtime, and the rate at which a human can be modelled increases exponentially thereafter. 50 years would place us some 30 years after this happens. I would say in 50 years we will not only know everything about the brain/consciousness, but we will have dramatically improved upon it to such a degree that consciousness at that point in time is simply incomprehensible (i.e. the Singularity). Kurzweil predicts that by 2045 a $1000 computer will be a billion times as powerful as all brains on earth.

[Sisyphus]

By 2025 we will be able to create a molecular model of a human being, from egg to adult organism, in realtime,

 

!

 

What makes you think that can happen so soon?

[Helix]

By 2025 we will be able to create a molecular model of a human being, from egg to adult organism, in realtime, and the rate at which a human can be modelled increases exponentially thereafter. 50 years would place us some 30 years after this happens. I would say in 50 years we will not only know everything about the brain/consciousness, but we will have dramatically improved upon it to such a degree that consciousness at that point in time is simply incomprehensible (i.e. the Singularity). Kurzweil predicts that by 2045 a $1000 computer will be a billion times as powerful as all brains on earth.

 

That's a bit opptimistic. What source claims we can "know everything about the brain" in 20 years? We will definitely know volumes more than we do now, but knowing everything?

[rakuenso]

by 2045 peak oil would've occured and the world would more likely be spending its resources on conquering syberia

[Nezumi]

Creates hypothesis:

"For the smart to succeed, they must first keep the idiots at bay."

Hmm.. breaking the cycle.. a pattern I see.

 

Simply find the alternatives quicker so that people stop being frantic and then keep getting money for other projects.

 

Alright then, off I go.