And because it could cost billions of dollars over several decades to build a comprehensive brain map, long-term funding could be another challenge.
The Brain Activity Map project could help, for instance, look at the neural connections involved in brushing teeth.
The IBM chip uses the structure of the human brain as map for the design of the circuits in their chip.
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"They want to really characterize the parts list of the brain and map all its circuits to see how they connect and communicate, " said neurobiologist Ed Boyden at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The new Brain Activity Map project hopes to understand and classify every signal from every cell in our grey matter, identifying where everything from thoughts, feelings and inspiration originate -- at a level beyond anything currently underway.
To truly understand how the brain operates in both healthy and diseased states, scientists will map out the brain's neural networks and unravel how they interrelate.
The brain imaging technology is being developed for a US-led effort to map the human brain called the Human Connectome Project.
Can we finally map the brain down to its smallest cul de sac?
Javier Provencio, a neurologist who specializes in brain injuries at the Cleveland Clinic, thinks the project will yield benefits but is unlikely to provide a complete map of the brain.
As knowledge of the brain expands, it may become more possible to map music's influence on the brain and brain development.
President Obama is outlining a multi-billion dollar plan to map the human brain.
Scientists are set to release the first batch of data from a project designed to create the first map of the human brain.
The Initiative will include a large-scale effort to map the topography of the brain, from cells to circuits, which will first require some more sophisticated imaging techniques.
FORBES: President Obama Pledges $100 Million To The Human BRAIN Initiative
For around 90 minutes each day, the electrodes were also stimulated to map the structure of the brain so as to identify language centres and other vulnerable areas.
Doubling its staff of scientists and technicians to more than 350 people, the Seattle-based nonprofit group plans to build over the coming decade a series of "brain observatories, " computational tools to map neural behavior.
In recent years, both public and private efforts have begun to map the basic wiring of the brain.
"You can capture a map of the circuit in the brain that was active, " said Brookhaven neuroscientist Panayotis K. Thanos, who helped develop the technique.
WSJ: Brain Science: Mysterious Neural Circuitry Becomes Viewable
But MRI has allowed us to visualize the brain's structures so we have a map in our head of where to go and where to avoid.
He uses an improbable combination of green algae, blue lasers, gene therapy and fiber optics to map neural circuits deep inside the brain with a precision that has never been possible before.
In November, the institute released a three-dimensional, high-resolution map of neural connections in the mouse brain.
They say their work helps provide a "road map" of which parts of the brain are most and least active when patients feel pain.
Valium (still No. 13 among psychiatric drugs, with 14 million prescriptions) put drug maker Roche on the U.S. map and introduced the idea that a brain drug could be a bestseller.
Part of your brain is engaged in constantly mapping where you are and storing that map in memory.
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