The most important

cellular/molecular advance in neuroscience in the last 25 years was the sequencing of the genome. The most important behavioral/cognitive advance has been the shift in the field of psychology from being primarily clinical to becoming the study of the neural basis of behavior and cognition. In the next quarter century I would like to see an integration across the domains of molecular, cellular, behavioral, and cognitive neuroscience. That would exponentially build upon and integrate the remarkable advances of both the fields of psychology and neuroscience, linking the study of the mind and the brain. The discovery that the central nervous system is plastic—physically adaptable and as such directly modifiable through behavioral intervention—is already being used to develop a novel generation of educational and rehabilitative methods for enhancing human mental function, both in children with learning disabilities and aging adults. Just as psychopharmacology and genetics have dominated new treatment approaches in the past 25 years, neuroplasticity treatment approaches will have the potential to revolutionize both educational and clinical intervention strategies in the next 25 years.

Paula Tallal, CODIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MOLECULAR AND BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, NEW JERSEy

O

ne of the most important advances in the field of neuroscience in the last 25 years was the recognition that the adult brain exhibits both functional and structural plasticity. Indeed, an entire subfield of neuroscience has emerged that focuses on plasticity as a basis for understanding brain function under normal conditions as well as after brain damage. Because of this large body of work, we now know that the shape, size, and the number of neurons and their synaptic connections change as a result of experience. Since the prevailing view of the previous era was that the adult brain did not change in this way, these findings and their acceptance by the neuroscience community have raised new possibilities for investigating the mechanisms of learning and brain repair. In the next 25 years, advances in optical imaging and targeted gene delivery will allow for the noninvasive tracking and manipulation of individual neurons in complex circuits across the life span. Real-time high resolution imaging of large populations of neurons with controlled gene expression may reveal the mechanisms that underlie the function of the human brain.


Elizabeth Gould, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

T

he biggest discovery in the last 25 years is how plastic brain functioning is. Take sight, for example. Evolution has been fine-tuning mammalian visual and auditory cortices for nearly 200 million years. Yet in spite of this, the neurons that evolved to hear in the auditory cortices of experimental animals can process sight if they grow up with surgically redirected input from their eyes. Likewise, the visual cortex can process touch, sound, and even syntax and the meaning of words, as happens in those born blind. The biggest advance in the next 25 years will be when brain imaging leaves the lab and enters everyday life. This change is on the technological road map, much as it was for computers 25 years ago. Not seeing the activity of our brains is an immense, though overlooked, limit on our species. To give one example, even though reading and mathematics are learned by neural circuits, education ignores that fact. A quarter century from now, aided by neural imaging techniques, teaching will not be blind to the brain. That will revolutionize the potential of every human.

John Skoyles, RESEARCH FELLOW, CENTRE FOR MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS IN THE LIFE SCIENCES AND EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON; COAUTHOR OF UP FROM DRAGONS: THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE (MCGRAW-HILL, 2002)

THE SINGLE MOST

important advance in the last 25 years is the development of imaging techniques that provide windows into the functioning human brain. For the first time it is possible to have direct access to regions of the brain that become active when subjects are solving mathematical problems, doing supermarket shopping, feeling emotionally aroused, or considering how to find their way home from a distant part of the city. The most important advance of the next 25 years will be finding a theory of

the brain that will enable us to make sense of the huge masses of data derived from studies from the many subdivisions of neuroscience, integrating from gene to neuron to ensembles to systems and to the brain in the body, with all its hormonal and immunological interactions, and from there to brains in bodies in societies.

Steven Rose, DIRECTOR OF BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR RESEARCH GROUP, OPEN UNIVERSITY, MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND; AUTHOR OF THE FUTURE OF THE BRAIN: PROSPECTS AND PERILS (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2005)

To view last month's think tank article, click here.

To view all think tank article, click here.