An International Brain Institute Is Proposed

Japanese instrument company is out to raise $80 million so 100 world-class scientists can explore the mind TOKYO—This time the Japanese—at least, some of them— aren’t going it alone. Sensitive to criticism that the country is unwilling to share its knowledge with the rest of the world, the president of a leading Japanese manufacturer of optical instruments is trying to promote an international institute to explore how the brain functions. The driving force behind the proposed Mind/Brain Imaging Institute is Teruo Hiruma, head of Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., a world leader in high-precision devices used in positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, mag- netic brain recording, and laser tomography. In May, company officials invited 20 scientists and engineers from the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan to discuss the proposal at corporate research ‘facilities in Hamamatsu City, about 150 miles south of Tokyo. But high-quality research isn’t their only goal: company president Hiruma hopes that an international effort in photonics will, in its ‘small way, de-emphasize the military applications of research advances in this field, thereby aiding the cause of world peace. In fact, ‘the title of the conference, “Peace Through Mind/Brain Science,” reflects Hiruma’s desire to discourage nationalism and foster the open exchange of information in the scientific community. Hiruma’s brainchild is envisioned as an $80 million structure on a 40-acre site next to existing company facilities. It would employ 100 scientists and technicians, from both Japan and abroad, and accommodate up to 20 visiting scientists for varying lengths of time. Company officials plan to impose few restrictions on the types of projects to be carried out at the institute. They hope that the presence of researchers in neuroscience, cognitive science, biochemistry, molecular biology, and various social sciences will help the institute’s engineers discover new components—sensors, detectors, and the like—as well as new uses for current equipment. At the same time, scientists at the institute would pursue nontargeted work on topics that range from understand ing a healthy, functioning brain to uncovering the causes of aging. Some scientists are skeptical that the institute can truly accomplish everything that its creators envision. Biochemist Werner Baumgartner of the Los Angeles VA Hospital warns that “a project as significant as this one” should take a very hard look at the philosophy regarding the mind/brain duality before getting too deeply involved in experiments.” Specifically, Baumgartner is concerned that the emphasis on developing advanced hardware might overshadow investigations into the actual workings of the mind. Adds Marcus Raichle, a neurologist at Washington University in. St. Louis, “Ideally, what you want to do is put everybody and everything in one place.” The institute, though laudable, doesn’t come close to meeting that ideal. The company’s concern that its research will have military applications is also greeted with a good deal of skepticism. “I think they’re being a bit paranoid,” said Lawrence Goldberg, who manages the photonics program at the National Science Foundation. “Photonic devices can be used to analyze various types of materials, some of which might have military uses. But if you’re talking about mind control or something along those lines, forget it—there’s enough medical applications to keep everybody busy.” Although Hamamatsu is the major backer of the proposed institute, it has made it clear that it wants partners. The Japanese government is expected to share the cost of the facility, and Hamama tsu has secured financing from others in Japan’s private sector and is even looking to foreign investors. Still, there are those who question whether Hamamatsu’s base is sufficiently broad to do all it claims it wants to. For example, Raichle points out that the new institute does not plan to pursue studies involving magnetic resonance imaging, a technique at the core of the new science. “That may be simply because of what they are selling,” speculates physiologist Rodolfo Llinnas of New York University. “After all, they are in business to sell a better PET scanner, and it would be difficult for them to enter this [MRI] field as well.” Even critic Raichle, however, says that Hamamatsu’s apparently firm commitment to fostering research on the human brain has convinced him that the institute can make a valuable contribution to the field. “Of course they want to make money out of this,” Raichle says. “But Hamamatsu is a first-class company. Like Bell Labs and IBM, they’re able to take the long view and support good work in the hope that eventually it may be valuable to them.” The May conference signaled Hamamatsu’s intention to take that long view, in both science and politics. “The language of science is the same for all people all over the world,” said company president Hiruma. “One of the significant roads to peace will be through the study of light, photons, and mind, brain science,” he added. Other participants expressed rosy hopes for the institute. “I am convinced that further development of scientific collaboration among Soviet, Japanese, and American scientists will strengthen governmental relationships,” said A.M. Prokhorov of the Soviet Union, who in 1964 won a Nobel Prize for his work on lasers. Donald Henderson, dean of the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and this year’s recipient of the Japan Prize for his smallpox work, predicted that such collaboration “will substantively advance a critical new area of science and the cause of world peace.” Henderson was part of a large contingent from Johns Hopkins, which has developed strong ties to Hamamatsu through the work of Henry Wagner, director of the university’s division of nuclear medicine and radiation health services, and Guy McKhann, director of Hopkins’ Mind/Brain Institute. McKhann says Hamamatsu’s technical expertise in photonics offers a unique chance for researchers at the new institute “to visualize the awake, functioning brain, which— enclosed in its thick, bony box— has until now been extraordinarily impenetrable to the clinician.” Frederick Shaw Myers is a freelance writer in Tokyo

An International Brain Institute Is Proposed

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