The National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, a program targeted for additional federal support in the National Neurotechnology Initiative, is launching a $30 million project that will use cutting-edge brain imaging technologies to map the circuitry of the healthy adult human brain. By systematically collecting brain imaging data from hundreds of subjects, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) will yield insight into how brain connections underlie brain function. This project will be viewed in time as sparking the development of many important innovations that will help accelerate the the Neuro Revolution.

Three imaging techniques that will be used to carry out the HCP may include: (1)High angular resolution diffusion imaging with magnetic resonance (HARDI), which detects the diffusion of water along fibrous tissue, and can be used to visualize axon bundles. (2) Resting state fMRI (R-fMRI), which detects fluctuations in brain activity while a person is at rest, and can be used to look for coordinated networks within the brain. (3) Electrophysiology and magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with fMRI (E/M fMRI), which adds information about the brain's electrical activity to the fMRI signal. In this procedure, the person performs a task so that the brain regions associated with that task become active. Since this is the first time that researchers will combine these brain imaging technologies to systematically map the brain's connections, the HCP will support development of new data models, informatics and analytic tools to help researchers make the most of the data.