neuroscience - from genes to cognition, from molecules to mind

7/30/2019 Neuroscience - From Genes to Cognition, From Molecules to Mind

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4. Neuroscience from genes to cognition, from molecule to mind

Summary

Neuroscience, the study of the brain and the nervous system, could be the most

revolutionary and far-reaching area of scientific research of the 21st century. The most

important appplication so far has been in the analysis and treatment of neurological

disorders but some of the other early applications of neuroscience are rudimentary and

controversial.There are risks of policy misteps in the regulation of the neuroscienceapplication and principles will have to be carefully formulated.Through new pedagogies, itmay have a key role in treating learning difficulties and enhancing cognition. Security

applications are already being explored, particularly in the US, and it is expected to be a

force multiplier. Neuroeconomics, a rich inter-disciplinary convergence between biology,

psychology and economics is likely to have implications for policymaking. The physiology

and the activity of the brain resemble that of a complex network and it may be resistant to

meaningful simulation. Invasive experiments on mice and monkeys have been crucial to the

rapid development of neuroscience since the latter half of the 20th century and experts

argue they will still be necessary. The phenomemnal rise of fMRI has meant that non-

invasive experiments using humans have become widespread. fMRI is a crude instrument,

but it could be improved in the future. Optogenetics, which is currently exciting

neuroscientists,illustrates the profound societal opportunities of neuroscience but also thethreats it represents to some social norms.

New connections

In 1906 a brilliant Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramn y Cajal produced evidence for the

neuron doctrine (Ramn y Cajal, 1967). Cajal found that the brain is made of discrete cells,

neurons, which act as elementary signaling units. The number of neurons and their

connectivity is what distinguishes the conginitive ability of species. Around the 1960s it was

becoming apparent that the brain filters and transforms sensory information, according to its

physiology, and that these transformations are critical for perception (Kandel & Squire,

2000). Neuroscience, the study of the brain and the nervous system, could be the most

revolutionary and far-reaching area of scientific research of the 21st century (Taylor, 2012).

The fundamental questions of how the brain perceives, thinks, acts and remembers have

been invigorated by a remarkable integration of molecular and cell biology and psychology.

Once at the periphery, neuroscience has become an inter-disciplinary field that is now

central to both. Its scope ranges from genes to cognition, from molecules to mind (Kandel

& Squire, 2000).

Measured in terms of publication and citation, neuroscience and its related disciplines have

been the fastest growing areas of scientific research for the last decade (University of

Washington, 2012). The most important appplication so far has been in the analysis and

treatment of neurological disorders (Kandel & Squire, 2000). Slower progress has been

made with psychiatric disorders partly because they are also modulated by environment

factors.

Fuzzy thinking

But some of the other early applications of neuroscience are rudimentary and controversial.Professor Dan Ariely argues that using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to


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assess products and services at the ideas stage may be commercially useful while others

dismiss it as marketing hype (Ariel & Berns, 2010). Neuroimaging has also been introduced

as evidence in courts of law even to the extent in the US of helping to assess culpabity of

criminal behaviour (Royal Society, 2011).

There are risks of policy misteps in the regulation of the neuroscience application. In France,neuroscientists helped convince the French Parliament to revise its rules on bioethics and

ban commercial use of neuroimaging but were unable to resist politicians wishes for it to be

used in the context of court expertise (Ouillier, 2012). Principles-based regulation may be

necessary to prevent innovation being stifled by blunt prohibition. Policy-makers would do

well to anticipate applications in advance because decisions could be difficult; and

principles-based regulation may be necessary to prevent innovation being stifled by blunt

prohibition.

Figure 4.1, New connections in science research, 2004. Source:(University of Washington,

2012). Orange circles represent fields, with larger, darker circles indicating larger field size

as measured by an eigenfactor score. Blue arrows represent citation flow between fields.

An arrow from field A to field B indicates citation traffic from A to B, with larger, darker arrows

indicating higher citation volume.


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A force multiplier

The gradual application of neuroscience to policy belies its extraordinary potential. Although

learning outcomes are also modulated by environmental factors, in education and lifelong

learning, neuroscience research has provided new insights into the enduring plasticity of the

brain and the transience of skill. Through new pedagogies, it may have a key role in treatinglearning difficulties and enhancing cognition (Royal Society, 2011).

Security applications are already being explored, particularly in the US. A National Academy

of Science report in 2009 urged a more systematic monitoring of research breakthroughs so

as to anticipate applications where investment may confer significant military advantage

(National Research Council, 2009). Cognitive neuroscience has been identified as an area

that could lead to improvements in soldier performance. A deeper understanding of

individual variablity could, by enabling a better allocation of personnel to tasks based on their

attitute to and appetitie for risk, be a force multiplier. There is also interest in its applicability

to the efficacy of training, pharmacological cognitive enhancement, as well as post-traumatic

stress disorder (PTSD) and post-blast care. The report also recommends investment into

key technologies such as brain-machine interfaces.

Neuroeconomics

Neuroscience has also become recently intertwined with economics through the study of

decision-making and economic behaviour. This rich inter-disciplinary convergence between

biology, psychology and economics is likely to have implications for policymaking. One of the

early breakthroughs in neuroeconomics has been a deepening in the understanding of

reinforcement learning where an agent has to make choices through trial and error. In this

decision-making framework, prediction errors update and guide the agent towards options

that maximise reward. Following on from single-neuron recording experiments in monkeys, it

has subsequently been discovered that dopamine-mediated prediction error is used as a

teaching signal to learn expected action values and to favour optimal choice in humans

(Dolan, 2008).

For humans especially, there can also be other potential outcomes to a decision such as

another more uncertain though potentially more valuable reward. There is evidence that this

exploit-explore dilemma is mediated by with activity in distinct parts of the brain: orbital

prefrontal cortex activity covaries with exploitative actions and anterior frontopolar cortex

activity covaries with exploratory actions (Daw, et al., 2006).

Neuroeconomics insights are leading to a more theoretical understanding of decision-

making. If key economic variables such as a disposition to explore or exploit, a propensity to

discount future rewards, or sensitivity to variance in outcomes, are under modulatory

neurotransmitter control then it raises the prospect of more precise pharmacological

interventions to treat abherrant decision-making (Dolan, 2008). But it also presents socially

awkward - though potentially game-changing - opportunities to enhance sub-optimal

decision-making through selection, training and pharmacology. Neuroscience could load

categorisations of human computational cognition with meanings that invite dangerous

interpretations.


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Brain activity

If only neuroeconomics were advanced enough to help decision-makers allocate resources

to future research. Despite the achievements of neuroscience, the brain represents an

exemplar of the messiness of the real. Two hugely ambitious neuroscience projects in the

US and in Europe have been launched recently to generate and synthesise new knowledge.The US project, announced by President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address, is

likely to follow the successful approach of the Human Genome Project by mapping brain

activity (Markoff, 2013). The European Union Human Brain Project, on the other hand, a 10

year 1.2bn flagship science project, intends to simulate the brain using supercomputers, an

undertaking that some neuroscience experts consider foolhardy at current levels of

knowledge (Waldrop, 2012). The physiology and the activity of the brain resemble that of a

complex network, which may resistant to meaningful simulation (Marcus, 2013).

It is, thus, important to take stock of the inadequacies of current knowledge. There are many

important questions in neuroscience that it will be difficult to answer with the limitations of

exisiting methods (Brain Mind Forum, 2012).

But an instrumental challenge

Some reporting of the Human Brain Project has erroneously claimed that computer

simulation may lessen the need for invasive experiments on animals such as mice and

monkeys (Waldrop, 2012). Such experiments have been crucial to the rapid development of

neuroscience since the latter half of the 20th century and experts argue they will still be

necessary. Professor Colin Blakemore, a renowned neuroscientist, and an outspoken

advocate of the need for experiments with animals to impove scientific knowledge of the

human nervous system, faced years of attacks by animal rights activists (McKie, 2003).

The phenomemnal rise of fMRI has meant that non-invasive experiments using humans

have become widespread. Using blood as a proxy for the measurement of neuron activity,

fMRI is a crude instrument. The technique could be improved by switching to

superconducting quantum interference devices to measure directly the electrical activity of

neurons, or, failng this, using stronger magnets and molecular enablers like parahydrogen

that generate a better signal (Smith, 2012). More powerful statistical analysis may improve

the low signal-to-noise ratio of fMRI while a systematic accumulation of reference datasets

could benefit comparative research (Smith, 2012).

Optogenetics shines a light

Neuroscientists are currently very excited by optogenetics. By genetically engineering

neurons to be sensitive to light and then employing implanated optical fibres to stimulate and

control their expression, experiments have been able to discover with greater precision how

complex brain networks affect behaviour in mice (Schoonover & Rabinowitz, 2011). The

application of this new knowledge to human neurological and psychiatric disorders could

refine imprecise pharmacological interventions and invasive deep brain stimulation. The

technology also illustrates the profound societal opportunities of neuroscience but also the

threats it represents to some social norms. On the one hand, identifying complex brain

circuits in humans that explain disorders may reduce the considerable stigma of neurological

and psychiatric disorders. On the other, the pioneer of optogenetics, Professor GeroMiesenbock has been caricatured as a comic character in Japan as a brilliant, but evil,


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scientist whose skull has been replaced with a plexi-glass dome so that his thoughts can be

controlled with light (Fielden, 2012).


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References

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Dolan, R., 2008. State of science review: neuroeconomics, London: Governemnt Office for

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neuroscience - from genes to cognition, from molecules to mind

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