WIKIMEDIA, JENS LANGNERThe US government plans to support research that aims at mapping brain activities to gain insight into the processes of perception, decision-making, and, ultimately, consciousness. The BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative is expected to cost billions of dollars, and will likely take many years. The European Union is also pouring its resources into brain research, this spring deciding to assign €1 billion to two Flagship projects, one of them the Human Brain Project. Like the US BRAIN project, it which will focus on multiple levels of brain organization, from genes to cognition and behavior.
These announcements are good news for the research community, for patients, and for drug companies and other industries that benefit from basic brain research that points to new ways to study, treat, or alleviate neurological diseases. But there is more to brain health than diagnosing and treating disease; it also involves preventing disease, first of all by maintaining optimal brain development. The EU project highlights prevention of disease as a possible benefit, and the US initiative emphasizes the need to help patients. But neither identifies brain development as a key area of research, nor mentions the possible effects of environmental toxicants on brain health.
This is a shame. A wealth of research shows that metals, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals can seriously impede brain development ...
