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May 1, 2013
In This Issue
Message from the Council Chair
LABMAN
LABMAN Educational Forums
BRAIN Initiative
Annual Meeting Highlight-Town Hall Forum
Annual Meeting Heads for the Clouds
OHBM 2013
Quick Links
OHBM 2013 Home
Program Information
Registration
Poster Information
Important Dates
Pre-Registration Deadline:
May 20, 2013
OHBM 2013 Annual Meeting:
June 16-20, 2013
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Susan Bookheimer, PhD, UCLA
I am pleased to announce that, each month, you will receive a newsletter containing the latest news and information from OHBM. As an international organization dedicated to the field of human functional neuroimaging and its movement into the scientific mainstream, we want to hear from you about projects underway that are producing new insights into the science and discovery of human brain mapping.
One example can be found below in an article describing the BRAIN project underway in the United States. If you have an article you would like included in a future newsletter, please contact JoAnn Taie, Executive Director, at joanntaie@llmsi.com.
I hope you have already registered to attend the 2013 HBM Annual Meeting being held June 16-20 at the at Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA USA. If not, there is still time as the pre-registration deadline is May 20th.
JOB SEEKER OR EMPLOYER? CONNECT AT THE ANNUAL MEETING
There are many new things to discover at this year’s Annual Meeting including the ability for job seekers and employers to connect through the Onsite Career Resource room.
While attending OHBM 2013, please use the Onsite Career Resource page to post job openings or provide your information if you are looking for a position. OHBM has reserved Room 309 (Level 3) in the Washington State Convention Center for attendees to use to conduct meetings. The room will be available starting in the morning on Sunday, June 16th.
OTHER RELATED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
See what current courses on imaging are being offered outside of the Annual Meeting by visiting the Related Meetings and Events page on the OHBM website.
See you in Seattle!
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The Latin American brain mapping community has developed a formal network to promote ideas and activities related to human brain mapping in Latin America. More specifically the Latin American Brain Mapping Network (LABMaN) encourages:
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the exchange of software and data;
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the training of specialists in all major imaging techniques;
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the transfer of new scientific and technical knowledge from abroad;
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the increase the scientific productivity of the region;
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the increase the awareness of local governments and international organizations;
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the organization of multinational projects in areas of special relevance to the region, e.g. nutrition, pediatric development, neurodegeneration; and
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the development of activities to the general public about brain mapping results and potential benefits to knowledge and health conditions intended to formalize collaborative threads into a Latin American network
LABMaN also has a global interest as demonstrated through participation in educational forums such as the:
Brain Connectivity Workshop
June 12 - 14th, 2013, Vancouver, Canada
Latin American Summer School on Neuroinformatics – 2013
September 16 - 21, 2013, Havana, Cuba
6th International Summer School in Biomedical Engineering - Multimodal integration of brain measurements in research and clinical practice
September 23 - October 6, 2013, Havana, Cuba
Information regarding LABMaN and its activities can be found at www.labman.org.
In general, neuroscience and neuroimaging research in Latin America is hindered by a lack of critical mass within any single country. Research groups and individuals currently not represented are invited to join LABMaN - especially those in Latin America. If interested, please contact Edson Amaro Junior at eamaro@usp.br or Pedro Valdes-Sosa at peter@cneuro.edu.cu.
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by Peter A. Bandettini, PhD, National Institutes of Health, OHBM Meetings-Liaison Chair
I was one of the 200 or so fortunate neuroscientists who were invited to the White House on April 2 to hear President Obama announce the launch of the latest Grand Challenge: the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative. Having heard a hint of such a project, I shared the curiosity and, frankly, skepticism of a large fraction of the Human Brain Mapping community. Where did this initiative come from? What was the scope? Who would it involve? Since initial reports seemed to emphasize nanotechnology, and curious statements like “measuring the activity of every neuron...” those of us who have been developing tools for mapping human brain function for the past twenty years using fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG and other methods were concerned that this project was ill conceived and would bypass this dynamic, mature, and thriving community.
While waiting outside White House on this blustery cold clear spring morning, I started discussing these concerns with Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel. He mentioned that this project was a long time coming, having been initiated, in part, by the vision and funding of the Kavli Foundation, and was rapidly evolving in terms of scope and specifics. The White House fact sheet that came out on April 2 describes several public and private sector funding sources, including the NIH, DARPA, NSF as well as the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and as mentioned, the Kavli Foundation. I was later heartened to learn that anadvisory committee had been formed that included some researchers who are active in fMRI and other current “mainstream” technologies. While the emphasis of this effort appears to be “technology,” having a human-focused cognitive neuroscientist who works with the current cutting edge technology also on the advisory board would be desirable. It appears that, at this stage, the specific goals and agendas, inter-agency coordination, nuts and bolts mechanisms, and long term funding amounts are not yet fully worked out. Nevertheless, the NIH has come out with a very informative webpage on this. The White House has also released a handy infographic as well.
On talking with those in the audience who represent the NIH, I had the sense that while there was much excitement and a huge amount of optimism in getting this off the ground, to achieve the lofty goals set forth here, some fundamental breakthroughs were required. It’s naturally risky to attempt to catalyze breakthroughs through increased funding. Typically, projects that have clearly achievable goals and paths of technology improvement are the best and safest investment of funds (i.e. Apollo missions and Human Genome project). Mapping (and making sense of!) every neuron in the human brain and then using that information to fundamentally understand and cure brain disorders and disease has a few gaps where fundamental breakthroughs will be required. A similar skepticism was expressed by others. These gaps can induce despair or alternatively, a sense of opportunity and excitement. My feeling is that this energy and renewed focus is precisely what we need to crystalize the astounding amount of talent within and outside the brain imaging community to accelerate our understanding of the brain. It’s clear to all of us that simply mapping is not good enough. We need to derive principles of brain function across all relevant spatial and temporal scales. From this we will likely hit pay dirt with regard to a wide range of both clinical and non-clinical applications.
A few snippets of conversation that I had with those in the audience: Typical electrophysiology technology is outdated. Nanotechnology has untapped potential for advancing brain recording/stimulation. Another challenge is how to precisely stimulate deep brain regions non-invasively. Tomographic acoustic stimulation could be the next advance to precisely probe brain networks. Again, the word “technology” was ubiquitous. In brain imaging, there is a healthy tension between technology and applications. Here technology figures prominently with the goal of drawing much from expertise from outside the human brain mapping community to advance this technology.
So, here we were at the announcement. After an introduction by Francis Collins, head of the NIH, President Obama talked for about 15 minutes, comparing this to the genome project and emphasizing that this is our next big frontier - worthy of significant investment. Scientists in the audience, including myself, snapped hundreds of pictures and took video footage on their smart phones. The launch was perhaps a bit soft, as the President seemed a bit vague on the details and measured in the enthusiasm. However, this was a huge moment - a moment that everyone in the audience will likely remember for the rest of their lives. It is also a moment that brain imaging community can seize and shape into achievable yet compelling brain mapping goals.
Watch President Obama’s talk at http://youtu.be/uJuxLDRsSQc.
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