The Human Cognome Project seeks to reverse-engineer the human brain, parallelling in many ways the Human Genome Project and its success in deciphering the human genome.

Analytical techniques used in the Human Cognome Project include:

• studying brain biology and chemistry in wet lab experiments,
• studying brain structure using frozen tissue sample scanning and imaging,
• studying brain activity and function using active brain imaging,
  (which is improving both spacial and temporal resolutions in successive technology generations)
• studying brain development though the field of morphogenesis.
• studying brain disease, injury and dysfunction through the fields of brain pathology, neurology and psychopharmacology, and
• studying psychology relative to brain structure and function through neuropsychology

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other scientific research bodies have endorsed the Human Cognome Project.

Fundamental brain research as the primary enabler for creating smarter-than-human artificial intelligence is endorsed by many public figures, most notably entrepreneurs Ray Kurzweil, Jeff Hawkins and Paul Allen, and scientist Stephen Hawking.

External links

• Redwood Neuroscience Institute: http://www.rni.org/
• Allen Brain Atlas: http://www.brainatlas.org/

• Yahoo! News Brain Research: http://news.yahoo.com/fc?in=Science&cat=Brain_Research

• http://www.technology.gov/reports/2002/NBIC/Part1.pdf
• http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn/a/topic/cognom/artclCncptlzHumnCognome.pdf
• http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jan04/0104bio1.html