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Mapping the mind.

These are certainly exciting times in neuroscience as we witness pioneering advances in our understanding of the inner workings of the brain. An article in this month's Scientific American: Mind, goes a long way to illustrating this point, literally.

Research is taking a multi-disciplinary approach to unravelling cellular mechanisms, and brain images such as those from fMRI nd MRI Spectroscopy are key, as scientists map the activity of the 20,000 genes responsible for brain activity that the Allen Brain Science Institute has identified.

The NIH has started working on the Human Connectome Project looking for brain circuitry. In my opinion, understanding the brain circuitry related to mental processes and states, as well as the cellular mechanisms involved, will have a tremendous impact on our ability to design breakthrough drugs that will more specifically target mental activity with less side effects.

Adolfo Cotter

For more information you can click here:

Allan R. Jones and Caroline C. Overly, Mapping The Mind, Scientific American: Mind, Sep/Oct 2010, 56-63

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