Download PDF
Demystifying the brain to better understand human behavior
Dr. Ralph Greenspan of University of California, San Diego inspiration to study the brain came from a sense of awe he had when thinking about some of biology's most basic questions: How do we actually think, learn, and understand? Why do we remember certain things and not others? And how many different parts of the brain work together simultaneously to accomplish these seemingly simple tasks? His hope is that soon we will be able to see comprehensively what is occurring in the whole brain in real time (something that has never before been achievable) in order to understand our choices and what affects them, as well as certain diseases of the brain and how to better diagnose and treat them.
- As one of the scientists who spawned President Obama's"Grand Challenge" to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain and mind, Dr. Greenspan has set up the Center for Brain Activity Mapping at University of California, San Diego.
- Their goal is to record from every neuron in the brain at the same time. They are striving to map the brain in a way that has never before been possible.
- This multidisciplinary research is unprecedented and will require neurobiologists and nanoscientists to work together to coordinate research and innovate to push the next frontier in brain exploration.
This research is multi-faceted in nature and therefore the impacts will reach far beyond neurobiology into the worlds of medicine and technology. There are tremendous medical benefits in learning how to better understand and treat diseases of the brain and psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and chronic depression. Once they are able to read the whole brain in real time, instead of just the snapshot that is currently provided by MRIs, they will be in a much better position to study and treat these diseases. In the course of their research, they are developing sensors, transmitters, and devices to study the whole brain in real time, and analyze the resulting data. These hardware inventions will have a direct technological impact.
Bio
Dr. Greenspan began working on the genetic and neurobiological basis of behavior in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as a graduate student with one of the field's founders, Jeffery Hall, at Brandeis University.
His work has ranged from the genetic control of nervous system development in the fruit fly and mouse, to genetic, molecular and neurobiological studies of innate and learned behaviors in the fruit fly.
In the course of this work, he has pioneered several new approaches in the fruit fly that have had important implications for mammalian neurobiology, including: the demonstration that the fruit fly has a sleep-like behavior similar to that of mammals, studies of physiological and behavioral consequences of mutations in a neurotransmitter system affecting one of the brain's principal chemical signals, studies making highly localized genetic alterations in the nervous system to alter behavior, and molecular identification of genes causing naturally occurring variation in behavior.
One of his main interests currently is to understand the role of network level activity in the nervous system and among the genes, motivated by a strong belief that the state of these networks is of major importance in determining behavior. Who know, there may even be a unifying principle for the operation of biological networks, one that cuts across phylogeny and type of network, could revolutionize the natural sciences.
In the News
Responding to President Barack Obama's "grand challenge" to chart the function of the human brain in unprecedented detail, the University of California, San Diego has established the Center for Brain Activity Mapping (CBAM)
Interview with Director Ralph Greenspan