China Joins Another International Research Program: The Human Brain Project
China Joins Another International Research Program: Human Brain Project
Chinese Academy of Sciences website article (Science and Technology Daily, October 19, 2001)
The Human Brain Project was another international scientific research project after the Human Genome Project. In recent years, well-known academic journals such as Nature, Science, and Trendssinneuroscience had reported on the Human Brain Project and neuroinformation science. They believed that the Human Brain Project was bigger than the Genome Project and covered a wider range of content. It was a greater project.
In 1996, the United States led the establishment of the Working Group on Brain Information. Its purpose was to organize and coordinate neuroscientists and information scientists around the world to study, develop, protect, and create brains. According to the regulations, member states could use the electronic network to seek research partners for data exchange and scientific research collaboration. They could use the general neuroinformation database and information tools for free, undertake scientific research tasks, and share scientific research results and brain research resources.
In July 2001, Professor Tang Yiyuan was invited by Dr. Cosmo, the director of the Department of Nervous Information of the National Institute of Health and the head of the Global Human Brain Project, to visit the headquarters of the Human Brain Project and Nervous Information Science of the National Institute of Health. He made a special report on the progress of the Chinese Human Brain Project and Nervous Information Science, which made Dr. Cosmo and other American scientists realize the strength and determination of China. So Dr. Cosmo sent a special letter: " Tang Yiyuan, Tang Xiaowei, and Dr. Yin Ling from China are approved to participate in the Global Science Forum for economic cooperation and development, which was established in 2000. Dr. Cosmo believed that the participation of Chinese experts in this event was of great significance, which would help China's research in this field keep pace with international development. China's participation would have a major impact on the formation and development of global neuroinformation science.
On October 4-5, 2001, Chinese scientists went to Sweden to participate in the fourth working conference of the Human Brain Project, becoming the 20th member country to participate in this project. Chinese scientists expressed that they had to actively cooperate with the international neural information network and database to establish China's unique neural information platform, electronic network, and information database. Only then could they not be controlled by others in cooperation and better cooperate with foreign scientists to share scientific research results and international resources.
Uncovering the secrets of the brain was the greatest challenge facing mankind in the new century.
What was life? What did it mean to be alive? How does the brain think? Countless questions appeared in the minds of humans. The reason why humans were different from other species was that they had extremely complex brains, which were the crystallization of millions of years of evolution. In the past 600 million years, organisms had evolved to produce neural networks formed by a large number of interconnected neurons, solving the problem of how the human brain processed complex information in a constantly changing and complex environment. Especially the high development of human's advanced cognitive functions, making humans the leader of all things and possessing the ability to dominate the world. According to scientific research, an adult brain weighed about 3.3 pounds and had a volume of 1.5 liters. There were hundreds of billions of nerve cells in the brain and more than 1014 nerve Synapses. The brain was the most complex organ in the body. It was the command center for receiving external signals, generating feelings, forming consciousness, carrying out logical thinking, and issuing instructions to generate behavior. It was in charge of human language, thinking, feeling, emotion, movement, and other high-level activities. The human brain was also an extremely delicate and perfect information processing system. It was the center for the acquisition, storage, processing, processing, and integration of the information inside and outside the human body.
Because the structure and function of the human brain were extremely complicated, it required research and integration from different levels, such as molecules, cells, systems, the whole brain, and behavior, to reveal its mysteries. For this reason, countries around the world invested a lot of manpower and financial resources in specialized research. The United States designated the last decade of the 1990s as the "Ten Years of the Brain", Europe determined the "Twenty Years of Brain Research Plan", and Japan regarded the 21st century as the "Century of Brain Science". The research boom of brain science spread all over the world. The scientists had proposed three goals: " Understanding the brain, protecting the brain, and creating the brain." People believed that the research results of brain science would make important contributions to human beings in better understanding themselves, protecting themselves, preventing and treating brain diseases, and developing the potential of the brain." Understanding the brain and understanding oneself " was the biggest challenge facing science in the 21st century.
Massive amounts of brain research data call for new disciplines
In the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, the number of members of the American Academy of neuroscience increased by nearly 30 times, reaching about 28,000 in 2000. The number of abstracts of the annual meeting increased by nearly 100 times, reaching about 15,000 in 2000, covering all fields of neuroscience research. In the past, research on the brain included neuroanatomy, neurobiology, neurobiochemistry, neuroimmunity, neuroelectrobiology, neuropsychology, and so on. A large amount of experimental data and research results on animal brains and human brains had been obtained. In recent years, molecular neurobiology research had revealed the mysteries of the human brain from the genetic level. Advanced gene chip technology could obtain a large amount of experimental data every second. The application of brain functional imaging (fMRI, PET, etc.) allows us to study the brain from the living body and the overall level. It is like a window to the brain, which can understand the brain's functional activities during human thinking and behavior activities without trauma. These new methods and technologies have greatly enhanced our ability to conduct brain research at both the microscopic and microscopic levels. At the same time, they have also produced a large amount of experimental data. No scientist or laboratory could grasp all the information and conduct comprehensive research on the brain independently.
What should we do in the face of such an information explosion? Do we need to change our previous scientific research model? There was only one answer: new needs would lead to new disciplines, and new models would lead to new breakthroughs. One of the most important problems faced by neuroscientists was whether they could manage data flexibly and effectively, maximize the use of experimental data, and reduce unnecessary repetitive research and waste of manpower and material resources.
The rapid development of computers and information technology has provided us with solutions, and the application of information tools has created conditions for us to solve this problem. Therefore, the establishment of a global neural information database and neural information electronic network was extremely urgent. Both neuroscientists and information scientists were calling for the strengthening of cooperation and mutual penetration between neuroscience and information science. A new research model should be adopted, which was experimental data → mathematical theory → computer simulation and prediction → biological experimental verification → mathematical model and verified theory. This could often achieve twice the result with half the effort and greatly accelerate the research process of the brain.
The Human Brain Project and the Origin of neuroinfo
The Manhattan Project, the Apollo Moon Landing Project, and the Human Genome Project were three epoch-making scientific projects that had a profound impact on the entire human society. The Human Genome Project was the perfect combination of biological experiment results and information science. The human gene bank would make immeasurable contributions to human health, disease diagnosis, drug development, ecological balance, and biological research. Many scientists believed that the Human Genome Project should be followed by the Human proteome Project and the Human Brain Project.
The Human Brain Project included research on the combination of neuroscience and information science, and its core content was neuroinformation science. Brain science and information science were the two hot topics of international scientific research. Its goal was to make use of modern information tools to enable neuroscientists and information scientists to link the research results of brain structure and function, establish a neuroinformation database and a global knowledge management system for all data related to the nervous system, and retrieve, compare, analyze, integrate, model, and simulate the research data related to the brain at different levels. It would draw the brain function, structure, and neural network map, thus solving the massive data problem faced by neuroscience. From genes to behavior, it deepened human understanding of the brain and achieved the goal of "understanding the brain, protecting the brain, and creating the brain".
The complexity of the human brain far exceeds our current cognitive ability. Traditional cell biology and other laboratory research to solve the human brain's acquisition, processing and processing of complex information and advanced cognitive functions is like seeing the trees but not the forest. The application of neuro-information tools and database makes it possible for us to find the laws and rules of neural information acquisition, processing, and integration from limited experimental data, propose experimental assumptions of mathematical models of information processing in the brain under various stimulation conditions, and simulate the neural information network in the brain with computers. It could be said that the development of the Human Brain Project in the past 20 years was closely related to neuroinfo.
In 1997, the Human Brain Project was officially launched in the United States. More than 20 famous universities and research institutes in the United States participated in this research project. More than 50 people in charge of neuroinformation research received funding from the project. They made full use of the advantages of neuroscience and information science to conduct research, establish cooperative relationships with each other, use electronic networks to exchange information, and use database to share resources.
In 1996, at the scientific forum of the Organization for economic cooperation and development, an inter-governmental entity in Paris, it was approved to establish an international neuroinformation working group led by the United States. The participating countries included the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Japan and other 19 countries. The European commission also participated as an official member. Its purpose was to organize and coordinate neuroscientists and information scientists around the world to study, develop, protect, and create brains. According to the regulations, member states could use the electronic network to seek research partners for data exchange and scientific research collaboration. They could use the general neuroinformation database and information tools for free, undertake scientific research tasks, and share scientific research results and brain research resources.
Dr. Cosgrove, the deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health and the director of the Department of Nervous Information at the National Institute of Health, was the head of the Global Human Brain Project. Dr. Cosmo was a neuropharmacologist. He had published many books in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and pharmacology. He had published more than 100 scientific research papers and received more than a dozen different honors and medals. Dr. Cosmo founded the first neuroscience project at the National Institute of Medicine and served as the director of the Department of Basic and clinical neuroscience at the National Institute of Medicine. A few years ago, he founded the famous Human Brain Project and served as the director of the National Institute of Health. The agency had already funded tens of millions of dollars in special research funding for the Human Brain Project and neuroinfo research. Several famous universities in the United States, such as Harvard University, Yale University, the University of California, Cornell University, and so on, had all taken on the research project of the Human Brain Project.
No country could complete the huge project of the Human Brain Project on its own. It required large-scale international collaboration like the Human Genome Project. At present, the international neuroinformation cooperation organization had held four working meetings around the world to jointly plan the Global Human Brain Project and neuroinformation. Several major suggestions had been made: To create a global electronic network for neuroinfo, develop advanced neuroinfo tools, methods, and database, and understand the structure and function of the nervous system through data resource sharing and modeling and simulation to promote scientific progress.
Join the Human Brain Project to share neural information resources
Many scientists believed that China's overall research level in neuroinformation science lagged behind developed countries. The next 10 years would be the stage of rapid development of neuroinformation science, and it would also be the most competitive stage. The later we join, the more opportunities we will lose and the greater the losses we will suffer. Because we don't have enough time and financial resources to develop our own database and information tools, even if we develop them, we won't be recognized internationally and it will be difficult to integrate with the international community. If they bought or rented foreign information tools, not only would it cause economic losses, but China's research in this area would always be in a passive state.
At the same time, neuroscience research was becoming more and more in-depth and specialized. Almost no researcher could master all fields of brain science. Obviously, the previous academic exchanges through publishing papers or attending conferences had severely restricted the production of scientific research ideas and results. The neural information electronic network in the International Human Brain Project could provide researchers with a fast tool for information exchange. The scientists of the member countries could use the neural information electronic network for data exchange, analysis, integration, modeling, and so on. Participating in international cooperation would greatly promote the relevant work in the country. However, all of this had to be done on the premise of joining an international neuroinformation cooperation organization and participating in the research work of the International Human Brain Project.
In the Human Genome Project, a grand global scientific research project, Chinese scientists overcame many difficulties and won 1% of the sequence. However, it was this 1% that produced huge political and economic benefits. It once again declared to the world that Chinese scientists had the ability to produce world-class scientific research results, allowing China to join the ranks of the Human Genome Project and stand at the forefront of this research field. It was only natural for China to share the research results of the Human Genome Project.
Professor Tang Yiyuan had always been in close contact with Dr. Cosmo, the director of the Department of Nervous Information at the American National Institute of Health and the head of the International Human Brain Project and Nervous Information Work Organization. After continuous efforts, Dr. Cosmo finally agreed to let Professor Tang Yiyuan be the special representative to participate in the third meeting of the Global Science Forum's Working Group on Neruoinformation held at the Japan Institute of Physics and Chemistry. At this conference, Professor Tang Yiyuan introduced China's work in this field to representatives from 19 countries around the world for the first time, which aroused a strong response. At the same time, he was invited to visit several important research bases of the Human Brain Project and Nervous Information Science in the United States. He had extensive exchanges and discussions with the people in charge, explored international cooperative research projects, and participated in the Human Brain Project. This move made Dr. Cosmo and other American scientists realize the strength and determination of China, so Dr. Cosmo sent a special letter: " Tang Yiyuan, Tang Xiaowei, and Dr. Yin Ling from China are approved to participate in the Global Science Forum for economic cooperation and development, which was established in 2000. Dr. Cosmo believed that the participation of Chinese experts in this event was of great significance, which would help China's research in this field keep pace with international development. China's participation would have a major impact on the formation and development of global neuroinformation science.
Dr. Cosmo visited China at the invitation of Professor Tang Yiyuan. He made scientific reports on the Human Brain Project and its funding opportunities at Dalian University of Technology, the 301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, and the 168th Xiangshan Science Conference, which aroused strong reactions. At the same time, the leaders of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other relevant departments attached great importance to and paid close attention to the development of the Human Brain Project and neural information in China. They met with Dr. Cosmo and had friendly negotiations to support China's participation in the Global Human Brain Project. With the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Natural Science Foundation of China, the 301 Hospital, Dalian University of Technology, Zhejiang University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China officially became the 20th country to participate in the Human Brain Project and neuroinformation research in September 2001. This meant that China had been in line with international standards in this field of research.
Join the International Human Brain Project with the characteristics of China
With the strong support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology, China's brain science has made many scientific research achievements in basic and clinical research, reaching the international advanced level in some fields. The 301 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, Dalian University of Technology, the Zhejiang University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other institutions actively participated in and organized the work on the Chinese Human Brain Project and neuroinformation science. In the past year, they held two expert symposiums on the Chinese Human Brain Project and neuroinformation science, and the experts discussed many key issues in depth. In September of this year, more than 40 domestic experts in neurology, chemistry, mathematics, and information gathered at Xiangshan and held the 168th Xiangshan Science Conference titled "Human Brain Project and Nervous Information Science." The experts seriously discussed the current state of brain research at home and abroad, how we should respond to the international situation, and other issues. A key issue had gradually become clear---to join the International Human Brain Project with the characteristics of China.
With the funding of the Human Brain Project, various relevant scientific research institutions in the United States had initially gathered and established various neural information database and information processing tools. They were also working with the Supercomputer Center and the European Union to establish a global neural information work platform. The system had standards and regulations for data quality control, as well as a series of data search, analysis, integration, modeling, and other tools. Currently, the Human Brain Project was an international collaboration. It used a universal database, unified format, and unified standards to link the brain structure and function, as well as the microscopic and microscopic research results. It drew a " map " of the brain's function, structure, neural network, cell, and molecular biology in healthy and sick states. The scientists of the member states could search, compare, analyze, and integrate in the database, as well as perform mathematical simulations and simulations. This would be very beneficial to the formation of theoretical assumptions and electronic cooperation between researchers. It could also avoid unnecessary repetitive research.
After in-depth discussions and repeated arguments by our country's experts, everyone generally believed that China could not be involved in the huge human brain project everywhere. We must play to our strengths and make use of our rich human brain resources and certain advantages in computer information science research. We should carry out in-depth work in the fields of traditional medicine with Chinese characteristics (such as acupuncture), Chinese cognition and special sensory neuroinformation research. By adding the Human Brain Project and neuroinformation research projects with Chinese characteristics into the Global Human Brain Project and establishing China's unique neuroinformation platform, electronic network, and information database, they would be able to cooperate with foreign scientists and share scientific research results and international resources.
The development of the Human Brain Project and the study of neuroinformation would undoubtedly greatly deepen the understanding of the human brain and themselves. It could be expected that, like the Human Genome Project, with the support of the state, the introduction of new scientific research collaboration and venture capital operation mode, through the concerted efforts of domestic experts in this field, the absorption of social resources in an open new mode, and the simultaneous launch of research, industry, and other aspects would certainly greatly promote human understanding of themselves and benefit all mankind.
(Science and Technology Daily, October 19, 2001)
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