tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post4833767938317415087..comments2024-03-06T09:41:30.532+00:00Comments on Trapped by the Box: Blue Sky Research and the Black Hole in Brain ResearchChris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-67751267963928040902013-03-08T18:50:59.038+00:002013-03-08T18:50:59.038+00:00Almost immediately after drafting the above I came...Almost immediately after drafting the above I came across the piece by Partha Mitra entitled "What’s Wrong with the Brain Activity Map Proposal" which is very relevant - as he clearly sees the danger in "Big Science" approach to brain research. (see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=whats-wrong-with-the-brain-activity-map-proposal ) and I posted the following as a comment:<br /><br />----------------------<br />I agree with many of the points Partha makes about the inappropriateness of the “big science” approaches to brain research – but he does not go far enough in pointing out the disadvantages of such major projects. Modern science is becoming a rat race for funding and prestige and one can only justify putting vast resources into very big projects if thery are certain to work and if there is enough money “left over” to support genuine blue sky alternative approaches which deliberately look outside “the box”. What happens in practice is that anyone with original ideas who questions the establishment views is very likely to left out in the cold.<br /><br />In this context I was interested when Partha uses an analogy with physics research - mentioning topics such as thermodynamics and statistical mechanics and the study of macroscopic behaviour. My own approach to brain research started many years ago with “macroscopic” observations of how sales staff thought about sales contract in a vast sales accounting system. Initially research was directed towards building inherently user friendly information processing systems – and recently I have started to look at the relevance of what I did to brain research. The result is a model which in some ways reflects the statistical dynamic models of gases. One starts with an infinite brain filled with identical neurons and each neuron is linked to a finite number of other neurons. Electrical pulses pass through the resulting network and the key is to find a set of “rules” to control the process. Because of the random elements in the model every brain (both human and animal) will end up with different connections – even when relating to the same external phenomena – and many of the connections will change with time. If such a statistical model is correct it is clear that trying to map individual pathway in an individual brain is about as meaningless as trying to understand gas mechanics by trying to plot the movements of every molecule in an individual gas-filled container. <br /><br />The problem I face is that my current research is unfunded “blue sky” research and falls way outside the establishment box on a number of different counts (for instance “I am obviously too old to have original ideas”) – so will presumably my idea swill never be properly investigated.Chris Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com