The International Brain Initiative (IBI) is an organisation, driven by scientists for scientists, enabling increased scientific possibilities through global collaboration, promoting neuroscience research and information sharing. The organisational structure is shaped by the scientific community over time and is programmed to fulfil the changing needs for global coordination of brain science. Members of the IBI broadly elucidate brain science, insisting on the prominent role of interdisciplinary neuroscience. Other domains such as medicine, biology, mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry and engineering are enclosed within the IBI’s structure. The understanding of brain mechanics in terms of emotions, cognition and behaviour along with development of neurotechnologies are some of the objectives of the brain initiative.
IBI was officially launched on 3rd November, 2018 at Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, however, the foundation stone was laid back in 2013 when brain-research initiatives began to form in different countries. A series of conferences and workshops emphasising on coordination among the initiatives across the globe were conducted, most significant of them being, “Coordinating Global Brain Projects” in September 2016 at Rockefeller University. The importance of international collaboration on brain research was clearly stated in the United Nations General Assembly on brain research. A 2016 publication, “Understanding, Protecting and Developing Global Brain Resources”, played a fundamental role in the articulation of ambitions of the IBI. These include promoting coordination among large-scale research programs, transcend borders between countries and research fields, disseminate knowledge to global citizens and to empower future generations of neuroscientists and develop contemporary models for international collaboration in research. These probable interactions promise to mould the directions of brain research for a longer term and provide a lasting legacy to the benefits to the mankind.
One of these interactions happens to be, The Human Connectome Project (HCP), aimed to transform our knowledge of the brain in health and in brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Autism, Schizophrenia and Dyslexia. HCP is mapping the connections between neural pathways that correspond to brain functions and behaviour. Connectivity within the brain has been broadly divided into structural and functional. Structural connectivity refers to the brain regions attached to one another. However, for being functionally connected, the brain regions do not have to be structurally connected. The HCP is constructing a neural map linking approximately 500 major regions in the brain emphasising on the anatomical and functional connectivity within the human brain, exploring the biological circuitry and to produce efficient data that will facilitate research into brain disorders. Furthermore, HCP is using task-fMRI to describe discrete points of differences in mental processing and structural and functional connectivity. The basic understanding of how brain connectivity dictates human behaviour drives the HCP.
Through HCP, neurologists have discovered the correlation between an increase, decrease or disturbance in brain connectivity and occurrence of mental disorders. These include Parkinson’s disease and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (altered connectivity), Anxiety (changes in Amygdala and increased connectivity), Alzheimer’s disease (changes in Hippocampus and decreased connectivity) and Autism (changes in the thalamus, cerebellum along with altered connectivity). This information can transform not only generalized diagnosis but also provide a new perspective in observing circuits within the brain and to precisely pinpoint the affected region leading to improved treatment. A recent study published in Science journal by connector researchers, revealed that the neural connections are not haphazard as had been thought, instead are arranged immaculately. The HCP’s resourceful data will help characterise human brain function, their heritability and behavioural patterns.
Another web-based resource, Allen Brain Atlas (ABA) is a publicly available, set out on the course of understanding the unfathomable complexities of the brain. ABA is one of the most comprehensive gene expression resource for the nervous system. It integrates gene expression and connectivity data with neuroanatomical information for the mouse, human and non-human primates. ABA was launched by the Allen Institute of Brain Science in 2004 to study the gene profile expressions of various regions of the brain and subsequently conduct large-scale correlative data analysis. Till date, ABA contains more than 1 petabyte of in-situ hybridization imagery and more than 240 million microarray data points from six adult human brain representing 3700 tissue samples. ABA has also been used to give rise to new scientific discovery including identification of a new gene corresponding to specific regions of the brain or new gene activity or pathway discovery.
Large-scale neuroscience is still in its budding stage. High-value resources that serve the community of neuroscientists require not only overcoming the challenges faced by classical genetics, but also specific challenges to the field of neuroscience. Neuroanatomical atlases and resources provide framework for integrating various data modalities and presenting data for the broad neuroscience field. Eventually, these resources will depend on the extensive community of basic researchers that they support, catalysing process and efficiency in large and small ways across many disciplines of science.
