A New Decade Project
More recent advances in brain research, in combination with the scientific consensus that mind indeed emerges as a result of the activities of the brain, has led to the notion of a new "Decade" project, one dedicated to understanding the phenomenon of mind within the context of neuroscience and psychology. In May 2007, a group of leading scientists met at George Mason University's Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study to map out a roadmap for the Initiative. The starting point was the earlier Decade of the Brain project . The Decade of the Mind project seeks as much as $4 billion in federal support over the course of the ten year long initiative. The goal is to use the new federal support to jump start advances in our scientific understanding of mind as well as to use that same research to serve as an economic engine for the United States. From an international perspective, the Decade of the Mind project seeks to involve scientists from across the globe in this effort, not only to improve the public health, but also to create new jobs from the new technologies developed under the Project.
The Decade of the Mind initiative, by necessity, should be trans-disciplinary and multi-agency in its approach. Success will require research that reaches across disparate fields such as cognitive science, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, mathematics, engineering, neurotechnology and computer science. Additional important insights will need to come from areas as diverse as systems biology, cultural anthropology, social science, robotics, and automation technology. For these reasons, the Decade of the Mind initiative should focus on these four broad areas:
- Healing and protecting the mind: This is the notion of improving the public health by ameliorating or curing diseases of the brain that affect the mind. An example of such a disease is Alzheimer's Disease. Reducing the burden of such diseases would be a major deliverable for the Project.
- Understanding the mind: This aspect of the initiative seeks to understand how the mind actually emerges from brain functional activity. Some of the key characteristics of the mind which are still not understood include consciousness, memory and dreams. The mystery of the mind remains one of the biggest scientific challenges for this and future generations.
- Enriching the mind: Improving learning outcomes in education is a key component of the initiative. Here the hope is that advances in neuroscience research can be applied to K-20 schooling to create a more educated future workforce better able to compete for quality jobs.
- Modeling the mind: A key approach to understanding the mind is to model it either analytically or using computers. Such models of mind may facilitate the creation of new hypotheses which can then be tested in the laboratory or clinic. Modeling the mind may also allow for the creation of new applications, technologies and inventions.
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