Research on the brain is surging.

The United States and the

European Union have launched new programs to better
understand the brain. Scientists are mapping parts of mouse, fly
and human brains at different levels of magnification. Technology
for recording brain activity has been improving at a revolutionary
pace.
The National Institutes of Health, which already spends $4.5 billion
a year on brain research, consulted the top neuroscientists in the
country to frame its role in an initiative announced by President
Obama last year to concentrate on developing a fundamental
understanding of the brain.
Scientists have puzzled out profoundly important insights about
how the brain works, like the way the mammalian brain navigates
and remembers places, work that won the 2014 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for a British-American and two
Norwegians.

Yet the growing body of data maps, atlases and so-called

connectomes that show linkages between cells and regions of the
brain represents a paradox of progress, with the advances also
highlighting great gaps in understanding.
So many large and small questions remain unanswered. How is
information encoded and transferred from cell to cell or from
network to network of cells? Science found a genetic code but
there is no brain-wide neural code; no electrical or chemical
alphabet exists that can be recombined to say red or fear or
wink or run. And no one knows whether information is encoded
differently in various parts of the brain.
Brain scientists may speculate on a grand scale, but they work on
a small scale. Sebastian Seung at Princeton, author of
Connectome: How the Brains Wiring Makes Us Who We
Are, speaks in sweeping terms of how identity, personality,
memory all the things that define a human being grow out of
the way brain cells and regions are connected to each other. But in
the lab, his most recent work involves the connections and
structure of motion-detecting neurons in the retinas of mice.
Larry Abbott, 64, a former theoretical physicist who is now codirector, with Kenneth Miller, of the Center for Theoretical
Neuroscience at Columbia University, is one of the fields most

prominent theorists, and the person whose name invariably comes

up when discussions turn to brain theory.
Edvard Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, one of this years Nobel winners, described him as a
pioneer of computational neuroscience. Mr. Abbott brought the
mathematical skills of a physicist to the field, but he is able to
plunge right into the difficulties of dealing with actual brain
experiments, said Cori Bargmann of Rockefeller University, who
helped lead the N.I.H. committee that set a plan for future
neuroscience research.
Larry is willing to deal with the messiness of real neuroscience
data, and work with those limitations, she said. Theory is
beautiful and internally consistent. Biology, not so much. And, she
added, he has helped lead a whole generation of theorists in that
direction, which is of great value for neuroscience.

Dr. Abbott is unusual among his peers because he switched from

physics to neuroscience later in his career. In the late 1980s, he
was a full professor of physics at Brandeis University, where he
also received his Ph.D. But at the time, a project to build the
largest particle accelerator in the world in Texas was foundering,
and he could see a long drought ahead in terms of advances in the
field.
He was already considering a career switch when he stopped by
the lab of a Brandeis colleague, Eve Marder, who was then, and
still is, drawing secrets from a small network of neurons that
controls a muscle in crabs.
. She was not in her lab when Dr. Abbott came calling, but one of
her graduate students showed him equipment that was recording
the electrical activity of neurons and translating it into clicks that
could be heard over speakers each time a cell fired, or spiked.
You know what? he said recently in his office at Columbia, We
wouldnt be having this conversation if they didnt have that audio
monitor on. It was the sound of those spikes that entranced me.
I remember I walked out of the door and I kind of leaned up
against the wall, in terror, saying, Im going to switch, he added.
I just knew that something had clicked in me. Im going to switch
fields, and Im dead, because nobody knows me. I dont know
anything.

Dr. Marder served as his guide to the new field, telling him what to
read and answering his many questions. He was immediately
accepted both in her lab and by other experimentalists, she said,
because hes both wicked smart and humble.
He did something that was astonishing, Dr. Marder said. Six
months in, he actually understood what people knew and what
they didnt know.
Dr. Abbott recalled that it took a while for them to develop a
productive collaboration. Eve and I talked for a year and then
finally started to understand each other, he said.
Together, they invented something called the dynamic clamp
technique, a way to link brain cells to a computer to manipulate
their activity and test ideas about how cells and networks of cells
work.
A decade ago, he moved from Brandeis to Columbia, which now
has one of the biggest groups of theoretical neuroscientists in the
world, he says, and which has a new university-wide focus on
integrating brain science with other disciplines.

Cercetarea asupra creierului este in crestere .

SUA si U.E au lansat noi experimente , pentru a putea intelege mai bine
creierul uman . Oamenii de stiinta cartografiaza parti ale creierului de
soarece , musca , si creier uman , la diferite nivele de expansiune.
Tehnologia de inregistrare a activitatii creierului s-a imbunatatit intr-un ritm
revolutionar .

Institutul National de Sanatate care cheltuieste deja 4.5 miliarde dolari pe

an pentru cercetarea creierului , a consultat elita neurologilor tarii pentru a
se alatura unui proiect ,initiativa a Presedintelui Obama ,lansat anul trecut ,
si care are ca scop dezvoltarea intelegerii fundamentale a creierului .

Oamenii de stiinta au confirmat teorii extrem de importante despre cum

functioneaza creierul , cum ar fi modul in care creierul mamiferelor se
deplaseaza si isi aminteste locul prin care a trecut , proiect care le-a adus
Premiul Nobel 2014 pentru Fiziologie sau Medicina ,unei britano-americane
si doi norvegieni .

Cu toate acestea , masa crescanda de informatii harti,atlase , si asanumitele connectomes (aici nu am gasit traducere pentru connectomes ,
probabil se putea folosi conectoare , de la connect) care arata legaturi
intre celule si diferite regiuni ale creierului - reprezinta un paradox al
progresului , avansarile dezvaluind de asemenea si mari lacune in ceea ce
se stia pana acum .

Foarte multe intrebari , mari si mici , raman fara raspuns. Cum este codata
informatia si cum este transferata de la celula la celula , sau de la un grup
de celule la alt grup ? Stiinta a descoperit un cod genetic , dar nu s-a
descoperit nici-un cod la nivelul intregului creier ; nu exista un alfabet
chimic sau electric care sa poata fi configurat in asa fel incat sa insemne
rosu sau frica , sau clipeste , sau alearga . Si nimeni nu stie daca
informatia este criptata in mod diferit in diverse regiuni ale creierului.

Neurologii pot specula la scara mare , insa lucreaza la scara mica.

Sebastian Seung , de la Universitatea Princeton , autorul cartii
Connectome:Modul in care legaturile din creier ne fac cine suntem ,
vorbeste in termeni clari despre cum identitatea,personalitatea,memoriatoate lucrurile care definesc o fiinta umana - isi au originea in modul in
care celulele si diferite zone ale creierului sunt interconectate . Dar in
laborator , proiectul sau cel mai recent implica conexiunile si structura
neuronilor ,ce se ocupa cu detectarea miscarii ,din retina soarecilor .

Larry Abbott in varsta de 64 ani , un fost fizician , care este acum director
executiv al Centrului de Neurostiinta Teoretica a Universitatii Columbia
impreuna cu Kenneth Miller , este unul dintre teoreticienii cei mai importanti
din domeniu , si persoana al carei nume apare invariabil atunci cand
discutiile ajung pe teritoriul teoriilor despre creier.

Edward Moser de la Universitatea Norvegiana de Stiinta si Tehnologie ,

unul dintre castigatorii Premiilor Nobel din acest an , l-a descris ca fiind un
pionier al neurostiintei calculatorice .
Domnul Abbott a adus abilitatile de calcul ale unui fizician in acest domeniu
, dar este capabil sa depaseasca dificultatile ce apar atunci cand se fac
reale experimente pe creier , spune Cori Bargmann de la Universitatea
Rockefeller , care a condus comitetul I.N.S (pentru ca N.I.H = National
Health Institute , Institutul National de Sanatate) ce a stabilit un plan pentru
viitoarele cercetari in neurostiinta .

Larry este dispus sa se ocupe de lipsa de organizare (sau dezordinea) a

informatiei legate de neurostiinta , si sa lucreze in aceste limite , spune ea.
Teoria este frumoasa , si consistenta de altfel. Biologia , nu la fel de mult .
Si , adauga ea , a condus foarte multi neurologi in aceasta directie ,
lucru valoros pentru neurostiinta .

Domnul Doctor Abbott este diferit fata de colegii sai , deoarece a trecut la
neurostiinta in defavoarea fizicii mai tarziu in cariera sa .
La sfarsitul anilor 80 era profesor de fizica cu norma intreaga la
Universitatea Brandeis , unde si-a luat si Doctoratul . Dar , la momentul
respectiv , un proiect pentru construirea celui mai mare accelator de
particule din lume se desfasura in Texas , iar el prevedea o perioada
urmatoare fara nici-o descoperire in domeniul sau .

Deja lua in calcul o schimbare de cariera, pana intr-o zi , cand a trecut pe

langa laboratorul unei college de la Brandeis , Eve Marder , care care pe
atunci , la fel ca si acum , extragea secretii dintr-o mica retea de neuroni ce
controleaza muschii crabilor .

Nu se afla in laborator cand Dr.Abbott a strigat-o , dar unul din studentii sai
i-a aratat Doctorului Abbott un echipament ce inregistra activitatea electrica
a neuronilor , si o traducea in zgomote scurte ce puteau fi auzite in boxe
de fiecare data cand o celula emitea un semnal . Stii ceva ?! , a spus
recent in biroul sau de la Universitate , N-am purta aceasta discutia daca
n-ar fi avut echipamentul acela de monitorizare pornit. A fost sunetul acela
intepator cel care m-a intrigat.
Imi amintesc ca am iesit pe usa si m-am sprijit intr-un fel de perete si imi
ziceam infiorat O sa schimb domeniul!
Pur si simplu stiam ca ceva s-a schimbat in mintea mea: Urmeaza sa trec
de la un domeniu la altul , si sunt ca si mort , pentru ca nimeni nu ma
cunoaste iar eu nu cunosc nimic.
Dr.Marder i-a servit pe post de ghid in noul domeniu , indicandu-i ce sa
citeasca si raspunzandu-i la multele intrebari. A fost acceptat imediat , atat
in laboratorul sau , cat si de catre alti oameni de stinta , spune Dr.Marder
pentru ca e si incredibil de inteligent dar si umil in acelasi timp .
A facut ceva inmarmuritor, a spus Dr.Marder . Dupa primele 6 luni , a
reusit deja sa inteleaga ce stiau oamenii , si ce nu stiau.
Dr.Abbott si-a amintit ca a durat ceva timp pana ca ei sa poata dezvolta o
colaborare productiva .
Eve si cu mine am vorbit un an , si abia apoi ne-am putut intelege unul pe
celalalt .
Impreuna , au inventat ceva numit Tehnica de Captare Dinamica , adica o
modalitate de a lega celulele de un computer , pentru a le putea controla

activitatea si a testa idei despre cum functioneaza celulele si sistemele de

celule .
Cu un deceniu in urma ,s-a mutat de la Brandeis la Columbia , universitate
care detine acum cel mai mare grup de neurologi din lume , afirma el , si
care pune accent pe integrarea neurostiintei cu alte discipline de studiu.