The Brain Activity Map

[Mike O'Dell]

There may be other reasons for a tin-foil hat,
but the prospect of "mapping the brain" any time
soon is pretty silly.

fMRI has been shown to be hokum
when they try to use if for anything other than what it
really does, which measure blood oxygen level in
a region, the smallest may be 1 cubic millimeter.
that much brain volume will contain several million
neurons and the several billion interconnecting synapses.

PET scans can do better at imaging fine structure, but
even if you can see a few thousand neurons, you can't
see synapses, and they make all the difference in the world.
Plus they are *dramatically* more expensivevcxc

Sounds like another "Human Genome" project. That effort was
ultimately incredibly valuable, but not because it has delivered
even 1% of what was promised for it. It is valuable because the
data has disabused people from the pat understanding they thought
they had and confronted them with the vastly more complex reality.

Likewise, if they do try a "brain mapping" exercise, I'm certain the
most important thing they will learn is that it's staggeringly more
complex than what anybody can imagine today.

     -mo






On 3/8/13 11:42 PM, fgentges at mindspring.com wrote:
> tacoistas,
>
> They are talking up a project to map the human brain here in 
> Washington.  In the wrong hands, this information could be used to 
> manipulate humans in very bad ways.  How many people will have their 
> skulls opened up for experimentation?  With our country being so much 
> underwater on money is this a good investment? I do not want this 
> research to go forward at this time with these people.  I do not trust 
> their motivations.
>
> See http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512141/the-brain-activity-map/
>
> Frank K0BRA
>
>
>
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